Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Thursday, April 3, 2014
(INDIANAPOLIS) - A new report says Indianapolis is one of the worst cities in the nation for what are known as food deserts - areas that don’t have easy access to fresh, healthy foods.
The web site Walk Score ranked cities based on whether residents lived within a five-minute walk of a grocery store. While 72-percent of people in New York City met the criterion - ranking it number one in the survey, only five-percent of people in Indy were that close to a grocery store. Indy was tied with Oklahoma City for having the worst food access.
"In reality, this is a legacy of adopting suburbanization, the automobile, white flight, the hollowing out of the urban core," said Nic Mink with the Center for Urban Ecology at Butler University, who is also part of the Indy Food Council.
Critics of Indy's low score point out that the report does not include other ways people can obtain fresh food, such as farmers markets, restaurants or well-stocked convenience stores. Mink says his work around the city shows otherwise.
"(Many residents) are left with food access options that are basically non-existent and, frankly, will affect Indianapolis for years to come."
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