What does food justice look like for different communities?

Food justice is an emerging issue around the world and especially in the United States, where access to healthy and culturally appropriate food are deeply impacted by race, class, immigration status, and geography. Structural inequities shape differential access to clean and healthy food.

Grocery stores are frequently absent in many low-income and minority neighborhoods: instead of grocery stores, we frequently see convenience stores and fast food restaurants. Communities that had a higher percentage of Black and Latino populations had significantly fewer healthy food outlets, leading to diets low in nutrition and high in processed foods, promoting obesity, diabetes, and other health issues. The environment within which people live—including public policy, zoning, and decades of disinvestment—creates a condition in which food insecurity occurs.

Redlining, Racism, and Food Access in US Urban Cores identifies how the discriminatory housing policies established in the 20th century continue to shape food landscapes today. In the 1930s, when the U.S. government assessed risk for real estate investment, neighborhoods populated by Black and immigrant residents were shaded red on maps. Banks denied loans, businesses avoided the area, and white residents moved away. Many years later, those same neighborhoods remain under-invested. Supermarkets are less likely to move to those neighborhoods.

Immigration status is another important factor influencing food injustice. Many undocumented immigrants are ineligible for food assistance programs like SNAP, even if they have lived and worked in the U.S. for many years. These prohibitions create an increased potential for hunger and lack of good nutrition. The study also finds that second-generation immigrant households face food insecurity when the family is a racialized population such as Black or Latino.

In many cities, corner stores and small ethnic grocery stores supply fresh vegetables, spices and culturally specified foods that cannot be easily found in mainstream supermarkets. These markets are not just stores—they are connections, they are community centers, they are a pride of place.