A Mixed-methods Study to Understand Food Environments and Grocery Shopping Patterns of Community Residents in Underserved Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida

ABSTRACT

A mixed methods study was conducted to better understand food access, food retail store environment, and perspectives of community residents on their grocery store shopping patterns and access to healthy foods in underserved, predominantly African American neighborhoods. GIS mapping, grocery store observations (n = 4), a food access and grocery store environment survey (n = 126), and focus groups (n = 48) were used. The results indicate that these neighborhoods have a low density of grocery stores, and only two out of four grocery stores meet the standard for a healthy retail store. Barriers to getting healthy foods and solutions to improve food access are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Supermarket
• food environment
• grocery shopping patterns
• low-income neighborhoods

Acknowledgments

We thank Ms. Lynn Fuhrman from the California Department of Public Health for providing a professional development session and data analysis services for the CX³ Food Availability & Marketing Survey. We also thank Ms. Sweta Sinha for conducting the GIS mapping and analysis.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

Data are available on request from the authors. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, HLG, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the USF College of Public Health Faculty Research Award under Grant No. 0126128;University of South Florida