toronto food strategy: food access mapping
DESCRIPTION
Speaker: Barbara Emanuel Session: Innovations in Food Access ProgramsTRANSCRIPT
Toronto Food StrategyBring Food Home
Food Access Mapping
Barbara Emanuel
November, 2013
Toronto Food Strategy
Spearheaded by TPH to foster healthy & sustainable food system
City of Toronto’s Existing Food Connections
Toronto Food Strategy Approach
Build/strengthen networks by doing things together
Leveraging resources
Top down & bottom up strategiesfor change
Research & evaluation
Food Environment Mapping
Better understanding of spatial relationships among income, food access, etc
Changing the discussionon “food deserts”
Inadequate access to public transit
Few Amenities in Walking Distance
Low Household Income
Lack of Green Spaces
Few Healthy Affordable Food Sources
Health Inequalities & Inner Suburbs
Using TPH Inspector Data to Create Maps
Detroit Cleveland
= Low Income & no supermarket within 1km walking/driving distance
Mapping a Food Environment Index
1km radius - street network
BEWARE THE HIDDEN DANGERS OF PRETTY MAPS
Maps (like all research) tell us about the next set of questions to ask, rather than telling us THE ANSWERS
GIS Mapping: Questions to Ask
What’s the quality of the data used to create the map?
What was the methodology?
Is it telling the right story or sending us down the wrong path?
MRFEI Scores for Toronto
MRFEI Scores for Toronto
MRFEI Scores & Low Income
Morningside & Ellesmere
KingstonGalloway
Kipling & Finch
Warden Woods - Teesdale
Flemingdon Park
Markham & Ellesmere
Lotherton Pathway
East ScarbStorefront
Don Mills - Sheppard
Lotherton Pathway, Toronto – Closest discount grocery 2.5km
Problem in Toronto is NOT quantity of food stores but quality of retail in many areas
Less healthy food retail envir’t common across Toronto
Many lower income areas have low MRFEI but income does not predict food envir’t score
Schools more likely to have fast food within 500m/1km vs surrounding areas
Findings So Far
Findings So Far… NOT true that big food retailers are ignoring prime
locations in lowest income communities
Need to look beyond supermarkets at full food retail environment
Need to look at dynamic food sourcing (e.g. environments near homes AND schools, workplaces, transit, etc.)
Photo source: ERA Architects (2012). Healthy Apartment Neighbourhoods By Design: Barriers and Solutions.
Findings So Far
Density in problem areas doesn’t fit with traditional big food retail models (but they’re trying to adapt)
“Progressive” regulatory legacies can impede alternate food distribution models today
Little support for small food enterprises
Explanations?
Mobile Good Food Market
Working with Existing
Small Food Retailers
Healthier Corner Stores
Approx 8 convenience stores in Toronto for every supermarket
Kabul Market- Scarborough
Food Retail Assessment in Scarborough
Wide variation in small food store models
Many practical barriers for owners to integrating healthier foods
Residents value customer service highly
Insights from Research So Far
Very little institutional support exists for small-scale food retail
Many store owners keen to serve community, provide healthier foods
Most successful examples we saw prioritized positive relationships with customers
Insights from Research So Far
Community Consultations
What Are We Doing with the Research?
Informing implementation of new Residential Apartment Commercial zone
TPH Healthy Public PolicyTPH Healthy Public Policy
Examples of apt tower communities in GermanySource: ERA Architects (2010). Tower Neighbourhood Renewal in the Greater Golden Horseshoe
Brian Cook, Research ConsultantToronto Food [email protected]
Barbara Emanuel, ManagerToronto Food [email protected]