1. Identifying Food Deserts & Food Imbalance Areas in Sacramento County
Tim Kohaya & Tim Tadlock
Sacramento County Planning
and Community Development Department
Thank you for inviting me to give you this presentation.
Before I go on I would like to introduce myself.
My name is Tim Kohaya and I am with the Sacramento County Planning and Community Development Dept. I am the project manager for this project.

2. Definitions
Food Deserts – Areas that lack access to healthy and affordable foods.
Food Imbalance Areas – Areas where grocery stores are significantly farther than fast food restaurants.
Food Deserts – are usually defined as areas… (read definition)
Food Imbalance Areas…(read definition)
The concept of food imbalance was developed in Mari Gallagher’s study on food deserts for Chicago and Detroit. Ms. Gallagher compared distances between grocery markets and fast food restaurants from residential neighborhoods. If the closest grocery market was significantly farther than the closest fast food restaurant from a particular residential neighborhood, it was determined that this area had a food imbalance problem.

3. Consequences
Communities will likely have increased premature death and chronic health problems.
Increase rate of obesity
Diabetes
Positive consequences when there is better access to supermarkets.
Improvement in diet among low income households
There are consequences to having food deserts and food imbalance areas in our communities. Studies have shown that communities will likely…(Read slide)
However, there are positive consequences when there is better access to supermarkets. Studies have shown that when there is better access to supermarkets, there is a higher quality of diet among various demographic groups such as low-income households and pregnant women.

4. Purpose of this Study – To Help Improve Community Health
Inform the County’s citizens and organizations.
Assist in the Commercial Corridor planning effort.
Assist in a possible County incentive program.
The purpose of this study is three-prong. One purpose is to inform citizens and organizations regarding which neighborhoods are threatened by food desert or food imbalance situations. Another purpose is to assist in the County’s Commercial Corridor planning effort. It could be determined which commercial corridors will be good locations for healthy food providers that could serve neighborhoods that have food desert and food imbalance problems. The other purpose is to assist the County in developing a possible incentive program to encourage providers of healthy foods to locate in food desert or food imbalance areas.

5. Step 1: Analyzing Sources of Healthy and Less Healthy Foods
The first step was to analyze sources of healthy and less than healthy food.

6. Sources of Healthy Food - Supermarkets
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
We chose supermarkets as being the primary sources of health foods. This is a map shows the supermarkets that serve residents in the unincorporated County. Supermarkets that have at least 10,000 sq. ft. of building area were mapped.
Elk Grove

7. Sources of Less Healthy Food – Fast Food Restaurants
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
We chose fast food restaurants as being the primary sources of less than healthy foods. As you can see, fast food restaurants are laid out in a linear pattern. Most fast food restaurants are located along the major commercial streets.
Elk Grove

8. Step 2: Measure Distances and Compile Data
After we locate the sources of healthy and unhealthy foods, we started to measure distances from neighborhoods to the closest fast food restaurant and the closest supermarket.

9. Potential Food Desert and Food Imbalance Areas
Potential food desert areas – supermarket farther than walking distance (0.6 mile).
Potential food imbalance areas – supermarket twice as far as fast food.
Focus on urbanized portion of the unincorporated Sacramento County.
Neighborhoods where the nearest supermarket was more than a comfortable walking distance were potential food desert areas. A comfortable walking distance was determined to be about 0.61 mile.
Neighborhoods where the supermarket distance was at least twice the fast food distance were potential food imbalance areas. These neighborhoods would have a ratio of at least The higher the ratio, the worse the food-imbalance.
Please note that I said “potential” food desert and food imbalance areas. There is another factor that must be taken into account to identify “actual” food desert and food imbalance areas. I will describe this factor later.

10. Potential Food Desert Areas
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
This map shows potential food desert areas. As you can see, most of the urbanized portion of the unincorporated County is not within walking distance to a supermarket.
The chart shows that the higher the median income level of the neighborhood, the greater the distance to the nearest supermarket.
Potential Food
Desert Areas
Elk Grove

11. Potential Food Imbalance Areas
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
These are the potential food imbalance areas where the nearest supermarket is at least twice as far an the nearest fast food restaurant. As you can see, there are potential food imbalance clusters in North Highlands, Fair Oaks and Orangevale.
The chart shows that there is a big jump in the supermarket/fast food ratio for the 20,000 to 30,000 median household income group. This is so because lower income neighborhoods tend to be located in or near commercial corridors and this is where most of the fast food restaurants are located.
Potential Food
Imbalance Areas
Elk Grove

12. Step 3: Identifying Actual Food Deserts and Food Imbalance Areas
Step 3 is to identify “actual” food desert and food imbalance areas.

13. Income – Major Factor in Identifying Food Deserts/Food Imbalance Areas
Lack of access to a car – big problem.
Direct correlation between lack of car ownership and poverty level.
High poverty areas – block groups that have at least 20% poverty rate.
Access to healthy food is a function of more than just geography. If geography was the only factor, then most of the urbanized incorporated County would be food deserts. So besides geography, access to a car is the other factor in determining the location of food deserts and food imbalance areas. Lack of car access is a big problem for those who live in potential food deserts. A colleague of mine who was working at the County service center in North Highlands saw a guy on a bike having a lot of problems trying to carry grocery bags as he was traveling on North Watt Avenue. My colleague said it was like watching a balancing act.
Lack of car access is also a problem for those who live in potential food imbalance areas. It is so much more convenient to go to the closer fast food restaurant than the supermarket that is a lot farther away. Also, you do not have to carry grocery bags if you go to the fast food restaurant.
Studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between lack of car ownership and poverty level. According to one study, over 25% of Americans with incomes below $20,000 do not own a car. So to determine areas that had car accessibility problems, we identified areas that had high poverty rates.
We have decided that neighborhoods that have at least 20% poverty rate will be considered high poverty areas by this study.

14. High Poverty Intersecting with Potential Food Desert Areas
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
To identify food deserts in unincorporated Sacramento County, we overlaid the high poverty areas (which are in blue) over the potential food desert map and the intersection of the two layers gives us our…
High Poverty Areas
Potential Food
Desert Areas
Elk Grove

15. Equal Food Deserts Citrus Heights City of Sacramento Rancho Cordova
There are food desert clusters in North Highlands, Arden Arcade and South Sacramento.
Food Desert
Areas
Elk Grove

16. High Poverty Intersecting with Potential Food Imbalance Areas
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
We used poverty rates to determine food imbalance areas as well. Knowing that there is a direct correlation between lack of car accessibility and poverty, we overlaid the high poverty areas over the potential food imbalance areas and the intersection of the two layers gives us our…
High Poverty Areas
Potential Food
Imbalance Areas
Elk Grove

17. Equal Food Imbalance Areas
Citrus Heights
City of
Sacramento
Rancho Cordova
…Food Imbalance Areas.
Most of the Food Imbalance Areas are in North Highlands.
Food Imbalance
Areas
Elk Grove

18. A Closer Look
Now, lets take a closer look at communities that have food deserts and food imbalance areas.

19. Arden Arcade
This is the Arden Arcade community. The areas in red are both food deserts and food imbalance areas while the areas in orange are food desert areas only. The food deserts and food imbalance areas are in the western portion of Arden Arcade. Supermarkets are the green dots and fast food restaurants are the red dots.
There are no supermarkets along Howe Avenue while there is a large cluster of fast food restaurants centered at the intersection of Howe Avenue and Arden Way. This contributes to the food desert and food imbalance problem in this portion of Arden Arcade.
Food Desert Only
Food Desert &
Food Imbalance
Supermarket
Fast Food

20. North Highlands Food Desert Only Food Desert & Food Imbalance
Supermarket
Fast Food
The main commercial thoroughfare for North Highlands is North Watt Avenue. As you can see there are a lot of fast food restaurants along this thoroughfare. However, there are no supermarkets. This causes food imbalance problems in a significant portion of North Highlands as well as food desert problems.

21. South Sacramento Food Desert Only Food Desert & Food Imbalance
Supermarket
Fast Food
In South Sacramento, there are a lot of supermarkets and fast food restaurants along Stockton Boulevard. However, the further you go westward from this commercial thoroughfare, the more you have food desert problems in the Fruitridge “panhandle” area. There is not a similar density of supermarkets that exists on the west side of the “panhandle” area that you have along Stockton Boulevard.

22. Conclusions of Study
Lack of Healthy Food Accessibility = geography + low-income (poverty).
There are large food desert areas in the Arden-Arcade, North Highlands and South Sacramento communities.
There are large food imbalance areas in North Highlands. Most of these food imbalance areas are also food deserts.
So in conclusion, lack of access to healthy foods is more than a matter of geographic distance, you also have to take into account poverty as well.
There are large food desert areas (read slide).
Most of the food desert areas in North Highlands are also food imbalance areas.

23. Next Steps
Now what could be the next steps after this study?

24. Give this presentation to other interested groups.
Immediate Next Steps
Give this presentation to other interested groups.
Study could be used by our Community Planning Team.
Commercial Corridors
The immediate steps is to give this presentation to other interested groups. We are planning to give this presentation to the Planning Commission and some of the community advisory committees and councils.
The Community Planning team of our planning department is in the process of developing commercial corridor plans of which some of these are near the largest food desert areas. The goal of commercial corridor plans is to revitalize existing urban corridors by encouraging more intense residential and commercial developments. This study could assist the Community Planning team in determining the areas where new supermarkets and other fresh food providers could make the most impact. New supermarkets and food produce facilities can in fact attract and maintain residents and businesses in these commercial corridors.

25. Available Information
We do have available information for you. We have a report with maps that gives you a more detailed explanation of our methodology and findings.

26. Information That Will Be Provided Upon Request
Maps and charts used in the study
ArcGIS shapefiles
Excel Spreadsheets
Also we have information that we will provide upon your request. This includes (read slide).

27. Contact Information
Tim Kohaya’s
Phone number:
If you like to contact me to get more information, here is my addresses and phone number.