Exploring Food Deserts in the United States

Abstract

The United States Department of Agriculture has joined forces with the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services to bring resources and expertise to support strategies that eliminate food deserts. The Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service developed the food desert locator, which is an interactive map that provides the spatial...

Download this resource to see full details. Download this resource to see full details.

Details

Subject Area(s):

Stratification/Mobility

Resource Type(s):

Class Activity

Class Level(s):

College 100

Class Size(s):

Small

Usage Notes

This activity is designed to help students understand the geographic aspects of income inequality and food insecurity in the United States by analyzing the prevalence and criteria of food deserts provided by the USDA. By using the United States Department of Agriculture’s interactive food desert map...

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. Students will be able to define the concept of food deserts and identify where they exist in the U.S.
2. Students will learn the criteria used by the USDA to define food deserts.
3. Students will apply the USDA definition of food deserts to locate them in areas where they are from and assess the contexts of these food deserts.

Goal Assessment(s):

1. Students will become familiar with the USDA website and the interactive food desert map. Students will also learn about the criteria used by the USDA, USDT, and DHHS to define a food desert and how these criteria differ between rural and urban areas.
2. Students will complete the provided worksheet using the information from their three census tracts and indicate which criteria their census tracts fall into as food deserts.
3. Students will identify the severity of their selected food deserts on a scale using proximity to grocery outlet and access to vehicles collectively on a whiteboard or other surface. A recommended scale is provided in the appendix.