Healthy Food Access in the US: a Major Issue

My project is about the access of healthy food for everybody in Philadelphia, even for poor communities. I want to make a change because the city has the capacity to act way better on this and food issues are at the source of mortal diseases on a long term, like diabetes or overweight. The question isn’t only the fact that healthy food is very expensive, the issue is also going through education actually plays a big role, and that’s what I want to improve!

All these restaurants are very unhealthy but common on highroads! (source)

This topic really matters to me because this is really one of the first aspect of the city that I noticed when I came in the US: most of the cheap food quality is deplorable, and healthy food is crazily expensive- to give you an idea, the fruits price are twice bigger here than in the center of Paris! As a person that is new to the U.S  I’ve a different viewpoint on this issue and more stepback on what’s different compared to Europe, and what could be the origins of it.

I believe that knowing these benefits of healthy food is very important for many reasons. First, a lot of people don’t even know why it is bad for your health and body to eat junk food and what are the multiple consequences. I also think that the whole Philadelphia public school food system is to reconsider: in public establishments, the services have free (or cheap) services with a mediocre quality. Imagine all the repercussions on your health if you eat lunch there every school days. A solution could be every students pay a cotisation depending on their wealth, to dramatically improve the service quality. Then, it would still be possible for everybody to have more access to equilibrated food. While talking about school, another important point to do would be to give an education about health to childrens via school- it maybe already exists but I don’t know.

This map shows the relation between obesity and poverty. (source)

This issue is significant because it touches all the social classes (even if mainly disfavored communities are victim of this issue) and it is a global problem for people health. We know as well that the most penalized are children because habits are taken at this life period, also children's health is more fragile, then could reduces it on a longer term. Sadly, this issue is also social and discriminates poor communities. Besides all these reasons, I think it is important for you to know what’s wrong with this issue, because, even if I think that you know a bit about it, the origins of this problem are mainly going through education. Also, it’s good to know that some associations are doing an excellent job in Philadelphia for improving the situation. Another example the Eat Right is an excellent association that helps people of all the ages (children, seniors…) to adapt their diet.

I think that the thing that I’ve discovered through my researches that could educate the readers is every time you buy food, no matter what, you’re shaping the future and the world in what you live: the food quality is traced on what population buys.