Food (in)Justice: A Closer Look at Somerville’s Economic and Social Health

Environmental justice is defined by the U.S. Envi-ronmental Protec-tion Agency as “the fair treat-

ment and meaningful involve-ment of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or in-come with respect to the devel-opment, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.” A more specific example of this concept is food justice, which fo-cuses on the limited access to healthy food communities of low income and large minority popu-lations face. In this project, I aim to display the food justice dilem-ma within Somerville, Massa-chusetts in hopes to shed light on the inequity our community faces.

As shown in the maps and the tables beside them, census tracts with the highest percentages of low-income and minority-identifying residents have greater percentages of stores with a low health index (1 or 2) and some census tracts don’t have a single store with a health index of 4 or 5 present. This information may prove critical for local policymak-ers when permitting certain stores to open at certain loca-tions, as well as insightful for stores currently in place when evaluating their own food stamp policies. To better meet the indi-vidual needs of communities within Somerville, stores within lower income/non-white census tracts should consider expanding their customer access by imple-menting SNAP or WIC programs. Moreover, grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s could also implement these pro-grams and a more equitable and environmentally just Somerville could become a reality.

There are a few limitations within this study. The Census da-ta used was from the 2010 Cen-sus, therefore in 9 years there can be extreme fluctuations in popu-lation density and demographics within the study area (ex. Assem-bly Row). In the future, a more specific analysis using census block groups can give a better, neighborhood-by-neighborhood demonstration of the food justice issue in Somerville. It would also be interesting the include the ex-isting availability of food stamp programs in the stores analyzed to see which areas are already fighting for food justice.

Introduction

Health Index Key

1 2 3 4 5

Unhealthiest Somewhat Unhealthy

Average Healthy Most Healthy

Small Con-venience

Stores, Food Marts, Dollar

Stores

Larger Con-venience

Stores, Small Grocery Stores

Specialty Food Stores, Food Co-ops

Large

Grocery Stores

Organic Large Super-

markets

Examples

7-11, Central Convenience Store

Teele Square Market, Highland Market

Little India, Boston Food Co-op

Star Mar-ket, Shaw's

Whole Foods, Trad-er Joe's

Health Index Value Percentage

Census Tract

% Minority Population 1 2 3 4 5

3514.03 50.5 2.20% 14.80%

3501.04 50.2 6.50% 3.70% 7.10% 20%

3514.04 49.1 14.30%

3515 41.2 6.50% 11.10% 7.10% 6.60%

3502 33.5 23.90% 11.10% 6.60%

3512.04 29.7 8.70% 22.25 28.60% 26.70%

3503 29.2 8.70% 3.70%

3507 24.8 2.20% 7.10% 6.60%

3501.03 23.6 2.20% 3.70% 50%

3513 23.2 6.50% 7.40% 14.30% 50%

3512.03 20.8 2.20% 7.10%

3508 19 6.60%

3511 18.7 6.50% 11.10%

3506 18.6 4.30% 7.10%

3510 18.5 8.70% 3.70%

3509 12.8 13.30%

3504 12 2.20% 7.10% 13.30%

3505 10.1 8.70% 7.40%

Health Index Value Percentage

Census Tract % Low

Income 1 2 3 4 5

3507 38.7 2.20% 7.10% 6.60%

3515 34.7 6.50% 11.11% 7.10% 6.60%

3513 33.5 6.50% 7.40% 14.20% 50

3514.04 31.3 14.30%

3514.03 28.7 2.20% 14.80%

3512.04 27.6 8.70% 22.20% 28.60% 26.60%

3512.03 27.3 2.20% 7.14%

3508 24.5 6.60%

3501.04 24.3 6.55 3.70% 7.10% 20%

3511 24.2 6.50% 11.10%

3501.03 23.9 2.20% 3.70% 50

3502 23.3 23.90% 11.10%

3503 22.1 8.70% 3.70%

3506 20.3 4.30% 7.10%

3505 18.6 8.70% 7.40%

3510 17.3 8.70% 3.70%

3504 17.1 2.20% 7.10% 13.30%

3509 12.9 13.30%

Data Sources: ESRI, U.S. Census Bureau, MassGIS, Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA), Tufts University

Food Justice: Income

Low Income Population Store Health Rankings Food Store Locations Minority Population

Census tract data for Somer-ville, as well as race and income data were acquired and re-formatted from MassGIS and the American Community Survey. Percent minority population and percent low income population (<$50,000 annual income) were calculated for each map. Grocery and convenience stores in Som-erville were geocoded from the ReferenceUSA database and ranked according to healthiness on a 1 to 5 scale. The quantity and percentage of stores in each category of the health index was determined using the Tabulate Intersect tool per census tract for both race and income maps.

Methods

By: Carla Giannattasio, ENV107:

Intro to GIS, May 2019

Conclusions Food Justice: Race