What are food deserts?
Food deserts are described as geographic areas, typically but not always in urban settings, where it is difficult to access affordable and nutritious food because of a lack of major grocery stores, transportation and other obstacles.
Residents living in such regions are forced to travel outside of municipalities with limited transportation options and times to purchase affordable and nourishing food, increasing the health issues and decreasing quality of life.
U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-Ewing, said that food deserts were already affecting people of color, especially poor Blacks and Latinos, the most. SNAP cuts will only exacerbate the problem.
“This is hurting single mothers and others across the country and in pockets of New Jersey, it’s going to be very bad,” Watson-Coleman said. “New Jersey has to put in as much as possible of what is being lost.”
It’s not just the Garden State, communities and states are bracing themselves for the worse.
“Local leaders … are sounding the alarm about the dire consequences of proposed cuts to the Supplemental,” the Washington, D.C.-based Food Resource Action Center said in a statement in May.
“These mayors, city councilmembers, and municipal officials stress that SNAP is not just a safety net for vulnerable residents — it’s a critical economic driver and stabilizing force for entire communities,” the organization wrote.
Alicia “Lisa” Newcomb is the executive director of Communities Revolutionizing Open Public Spaces, or C.R.O.P.S.,, a local nonprofit that has been dealing with food insecurity in innovative ways, from community gardens and building alliances, to working directly with farmers. She said the federal changes are “scary”
“We do sit in policy update groups and if there is one silver lining is that in New Jersey, we won’t see those changes for two years,” Newcomb said. “That gives us a little time to solidify relationships with other organizations and work with the county government to find out what the plan is for what’s coming.”
