The motivation for this study is two fold in that food insecurity is a principal public health challenge facing the nation (Gunderson 2013) and food insecurity in Lane has not improved with significant community efforts over the past decade (USDA, ERS b 2015; Smith 2003). Food security is the state of all people having access to “sufficient, safe, and nutritious” food to support health (WHO 1996). Food is an imperative for survival, though many communities both urban and rural struggle with limitations in terms of accessibility, quality, and variety. A variety of healthy foods, which increase diet quality increase quality of life by acting as a proactive measure for reducing chronic diseases. Diets have changed with food environments where …show more content…
Food systems in the U.S. have changed significantly over the past fifty years, food businesses are more sparsely distributed across the landscape and “mom and pop” grocers are few and far between due to competitive product pricing in superstores and insufficient demand (Morton and Blanchard, 2007; Story et al., 2008). The loss of smaller grocers has contributed to the creation and persistence of food deserts in rural places where people travel farther to access food stores. The term food desert, coined in Scotland, is a metaphor used by researchers to prompt visualization of contemporary foodscapes of naught, drenched in dearth (McEntee and Agyeman 2010). The USDA defines food deserts as areas where low-income populations must travel distances greater than ten miles in rural areas and about half a mile in urban areas (Ver Ploeg et al., 2009; Alviola et al., 2013).

Food insecurity research is firmly rooted in its suspected principal cause, poverty. As evidenced by those who have done extensive research on the topic, the poor and subsequently racial and ethnic minorities as well as vulnerable groups bear an unequal burden of disparities in food access and health outcomes associated with poor diet (Moore and Roux 2005; Liese et al. 2007; Morton and Blanchard 2007; Sharkey 2009; Morton et al. 2005; Block et al. 2004; Eckert and Shetty …show more content…
Unfortunately, the nation’s food environment is out of balance in some places as evidenced by higher rates of diet related conditions like obesity and diabetes (Eckert and Shetty 2011). Several health studies reported increased dietary intake of fruits and vegetables as advantageous for promoting overall health by increasing vitamin and nutrient intake and also as a preventive measure against chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes (Rasmussen et al., 2006; Story et. al., 2008). Story et al. (2008) argued that food environments play an important role in diets beyond personal determinants like preparation skills and motivation in the article Creating Healthy Food and Eating Environments: Policy and Environmental Approaches in the journal Annual Review of Public Health. People eat what is most available, the foods nearby, even perhaps if they are merely food like substances. Food environment complexities are preceded by markets of scale and determined by factors largely out of the hands of those most likely negatively impacted by a lack of healthy foods, the poor. This has inspired many communities to intervene in distribution processes of food systems that live in gluttonous carbon footprints. This movement is focused on sustainable practices, increasing nutrition densities, and reducing overall food wastes. Local community gardens,