Getting people to food and food to people: considering transportation barriers and food access in the future of food

ABSTRACT

When we consider what our food systems will look like in the coming years, a significant factor to consider is transportation—the ability to both get to and receive food. Barriers to access can create long-term negative socioeconomic impacts on health, education, employment, and a range of other outcomes. Yet while transportation challenges have been recognized for many years, solutions to them remain vexing. This paper explores issues of food access through interviews with service providers and individuals accessing food assistance in the northeastern United States to understand both barriers and potential solutions. Some of the key challenges they highlight include a lack of transit infrastructure, dependency on personal vehicles, spatial limitations, and what these mean for food access. The responses to such challenges fall into three categories: bringing people to food, bringing food to places people already access, and bringing food directly to people. This work critically examines the context of such dynamics and what they mean in terms of the sustainability and future of the food system. Keywords: transportation, food access, mobility, food security, social service.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Antoinette WinklerPrins and Moses Kansanga for their feedback and guidance on earlier drafts of this article as well as the editors of this journal and the reviewers for their excellent suggestions to strengthen the work. My discussions of food security in rural areas have been deeply informed by the work of my colleagues Teresa Mares and Cheryl Morse. I am grateful to Kelly Dolan, Helen Labun and especially Becka Warren with the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund and the Farm to Plate Network for their support and guidance with the underlying research. I also thank my research assistants Isabel Dunkley, Cate MacDonald, Anitra Conover and Hanna Hartman for their support with the project. Finally, this work could not have taken place without all I have learned from the innovative work and experimentation by Alisha Laramee and the New Farms for New Americans program. All errors in this article remain my own.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.