I’m going to start off this post by quoting The Sacramento Bee:

One aspect of Michelle Obama’s fight against obesity is an initiative to eliminate so-called “food deserts” in urban and rural areas across the country. A food desert is a low income neighborhood whose residents have low access to healthy and affordable food. Specifically this is a census tract with a significant number of families living in poverty who — because of distance and lack of transportation — cannot easily get to a grocery store that sells fresh, nutritious food items. Often the only accessible outlets are fast food restaurants and convenience stores.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has created a Food Desert Locator. Just type in an address and you’ll see if you are in a “food desert” or near one.

I’m going to add this resource into the post I’ve written about one of my favorite lesson each year — when our students do a unique neighborhood analysis. You can read about it at A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits.