IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i20p15065-d1263270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Food Access in Two Predominantly White Cities: The Case of Lansing, East Lansing, and Surrounding Townships in Michigan

Author

Listed:
  • Dorceta E. Taylor

    (Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, 195 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA)

  • Katherine Allison

    (Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, 301 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA)

  • Tevin Hamilton

    (Pacific Environment, 473 Pine Street #3, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA)

  • Ashley Bell

    (Yale School of the Environment, Yale University, 301 Prospect Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA)

Abstract

Access to fresh, healthy, affordable foods is a pressing concern in cities worldwide. American cities are no exception. Although many scholars study food access in large cities, small and mid-sized American cities can provide valuable information about inequities in the food system. This paper focuses on two adjoining, racially mixed Mid-Michigan cities—Lansing and East Lansing. It examines the extent to which different food outlets exist in the cities and surrounding townships. It probes the following questions: (1) How are food outlets distributed throughout the cities and suburbs? (2) What is the relationship between neighborhood demographic characteristics and the distribution of food outlet types? We collected data on food outlets from September 2020 to June 2022 using Data Axle as our primary source of information. We used ArcGIS 10.8.1 for the spatial mapping and SPSS 28 for statistical analyses. We conducted regression analyses to identify the difference in the likelihood of finding food retailers in census tracts where 0–20% of the residents were People of Color (VL-POC), 20.01–40% of the inhabitants were People of Color (L-POC), 40.1–60% of the residents were People of Color (H-POC), and more than 60% of residents were People of Color (VH-POC). There were 1647 food outlets in the study area: 579 were in Lansing, 220 were in East Lansing, and the remaining 848 were in the surrounding townships. Restaurants dominated the food landscape, while small groceries and convenience stores were the grocery sector’s most common food outlet types. Supermarkets and large grocery stores comprised only 5.6% of the study area’s food outlets. The study finds a nonlinear relationship between the racial composition of census tracts and the prevalence of food outlets. The VH-POC census tracts had very few food outlets. For instance, the tracts had no supermarkets, mass merchandisers or supercenters, small grocery or convenience stores, pharmacies or drug stores, or farmers’ markets. The findings illustrate the diversity and complexity of the Lansing–East Lansing metropolitan area’s food landscape.

Suggested Citation

  • Dorceta E. Taylor & Katherine Allison & Tevin Hamilton & Ashley Bell, 2023. "Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Food Access in Two Predominantly White Cities: The Case of Lansing, East Lansing, and Surrounding Townships in Michigan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-49, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:15065-:d:1263270
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/15065/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/20/15065/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexis Dinno, 2015. "Nonparametric pairwise multiple comparisons in independent groups using Dunn's test," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 15(1), pages 292-300, March.
    2. Nicole Reeder & Pradtana Tapanee & Anna Persell & Terezie Tolar-Peterson, 2020. "Food Insecurity, Depression, and Race: Correlations Observed Among College Students at a University in the Southeastern United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-11, November.
    3. Zaynel Sushil & Stefanie Vandevijvere & Daniel J. Exeter & Boyd Swinburn, 2017. "Food swamps by area socioeconomic deprivation in New Zealand: a national study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(8), pages 869-877, November.
    4. Gundersen, Craig & Kreider, Brent, 2009. "Bounding the effects of food insecurity on children's health outcomes," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 971-983, September.
    5. Éric Robitaille & Marie-Claude Paquette, 2020. "Development of a Method to Locate Deserts and Food Swamps Following the Experience of a Region in Quebec, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-14, May.
    6. Taylor Harris Braswell, 2018. "Fresh food, new faces: community gardening as ecological gentrification in St. Louis, Missouri," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 35(4), pages 809-822, December.
    7. Ghirardelli, A. & Quinn, V. & Foerster, S.B., 2010. "Using geographic information systems and local food store data in California's low-income neighborhoods to inform community initiatives and resources," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(11), pages 2156-2162.
    8. Igor Vojnovic & Jieun Lee & Zeenat Kotval-K & Angelo Podagrosi & Pariwate Varnakovida & Timothy Ledoux & Joseph Messina, 2013. "The Burdens of Place: A Socio-economic and Ethnic/Racial Exploration into Urban Form, Accessibility and Travel Behaviour in the Lansing Capital Region, Michigan," Journal of Urban Design, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 1-35, February.
    9. Rattan Lal, 2020. "Home gardening and urban agriculture for advancing food and nutritional security in response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(4), pages 871-876, August.
    10. Ver Ploeg, Michele, 2010. "Food Environment, Food Store Access, Consumer Behavior, and Diet," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 25(3), pages 1-5.
    11. Brian Elbel & Kosuke Tamura & Zachary T McDermott & Dustin T Duncan & Jessica K Athens & Erilia Wu & Tod Mijanovich & Amy Ellen Schwartz, 2019. "Disparities in food access around homes and schools for New York City children," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-17, June.
    12. Aaronson, Daniel & Faber, Jacob & Hartley, Daniel & Mazumder, Bhashkar & Sharkey, Patrick, 2021. "The long-run effects of the 1930s HOLC “redlining” maps on place-based measures of economic opportunity and socioeconomic success," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    13. Hanna-Attisha, M. & LaChance, J. & Sadler, R.C. & Schnepp, A.C., 2016. "Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the flint drinking water crisis: A spatial analysis of risk and public health response," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(2), pages 283-290.
    14. Richard Casey Sadler & Amanda Y. Kong & Zachary Buchalski & Erika Renee Chanderraj & Laura A. Carravallah, 2021. "Linking the Flint Food Store Survey: Is Objective or Perceived Access to Healthy Foods Associated with Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-13, September.
    15. Richard C. Sadler & Jason A. Gilliland & Godwin Arku, 2013. "A Food Retail-Based Intervention on Food Security and Consumption," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-22, August.
    16. Moore, L.V. & Diez Roux, A.V., 2006. "Associations of neighborhood characteristics with the location and type of food stores," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 96(2), pages 325-331.
    17. Zenk, S.N. & Schulz, A.J. & Israel, B.A. & James, S.A. & Bao, S. & Wilson, M.L., 2005. "Neighborhood racial composition, neighborhood poverty, and the spatial accessibility of supermarkets in metropolitan Detroit," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(4), pages 660-667.
    18. Dorceta E. Taylor & Lina M. Farias & Lia M. Kahan & Julia Talamo & Alison Surdoval & Ember D. McCoy & Socorro M. Daupan, 2022. "Understanding the challenges faced by Michigan’s family farmers: race/ethnicity and the impacts of a pandemic," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 1077-1096, September.
    19. Rose, D. & Bodor, J.N. & Rice, J.C. & Swalm, C.M. & Hutchinson, P.L., 2011. "The Effects of hurricane katrina on food access disparities in new orleans," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(3), pages 482-484.
    20. Morland, K. & Wing, S. & Roux, A.D., 2002. "The contextual effect of the local food environment on residents' diets: The atherosclerosis risk in communities study," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(11), pages 1761-1767.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bonanno, Alessandro & Ghosh, Gaurav S., 2010. "SNAP Efficacy and Food Access – A Nationwide Spatial Analysis," 115th Joint EAAE/AAEA Seminar, September 15-17, 2010, Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany 116437, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Wendt, Minh & Kinsey, Jean D. & Kaufman, Phillip R., 2008. "Food Accessibility in the Inner City: What Have We Learned, A Literature Review 1963-2006," Working Papers 37625, University of Minnesota, The Food Industry Center.
    3. Kristen Cooksey-Stowers & Marlene B. Schwartz & Kelly D. Brownell, 2017. "Food Swamps Predict Obesity Rates Better Than Food Deserts in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Michael D. M. Bader & Marnie Purciel & Paulette Yousefzadeh & Kathryn M. Neckerman, 2010. "Disparities in Neighborhood Food Environments: Implications of Measurement Strategies," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 86(4), pages 409-430, October.
    5. Joshua L. Warren & Penny Gordon‐Larsen, 2018. "Factors associated with supermarket and convenience store closure: a discrete time spatial survival modelling approach," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 181(3), pages 783-802, June.
    6. Chang, Virginia W., 2006. "Racial residential segregation and weight status among US adults," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(5), pages 1289-1303, September.
    7. Kelsey Ryan-Simkins, 2021. "The intersection of food justice and religious values in secular spaces: insights from a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 38(3), pages 767-781, September.
    8. Kristína Bilková & František Križan, 2015. "Mapping of Grocery Stores in Slovak Countryside in Context of Food Deserts," Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, Mendel University Press, vol. 63(5), pages 1633-1638.
    9. Chen, Susan E. & Liu, Jing & Binkley, James K., 2012. "An Exploration of the Relationship Between Income and Eating Behavior," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 41(1), pages 82-91, April.
    10. Richard Casey Sadler & Amanda Y. Kong & Zachary Buchalski & Erika Renee Chanderraj & Laura A. Carravallah, 2021. "Linking the Flint Food Store Survey: Is Objective or Perceived Access to Healthy Foods Associated with Glycemic Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-13, September.
    11. Dave Weatherspoon & James Oehmke & Assa Dembélé & Marcus Coleman & Thasanee Satimanon & Lorraine Weatherspoon, 2013. "Price and Expenditure Elasticities for Fresh Fruits in an Urban Food Desert," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(1), pages 88-106, January.
    12. Forsyth, Ann & Lytle, Leslie & Van Riper, David, 2010. "Finding food: Issues and challenges in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to measure food access," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 3(1), pages 43-65.
    13. Susan Chen & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Samantha Snyder & Christopher C. Miller, 2010. "Obesity and Access to Chain Grocers," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 86(4), pages 431-452, October.
    14. Alex B. Hill & Ravneet Kaur & Samantha M. Sundermeir & Christina Kasprzak & Megan Winkler & Sara John & Rachael D. Dombrowski & Bree Bode & Joel Gittelsohn, 2022. "Refining the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS) for Healthy Community Stores: Adaptations to Capture Alternative Food Retailers and Align with Dietary Guidelines," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-13, October.
    15. Kar, Armita & Motoyama, Yasuyuki & Carrel, Andre L. & Miller, Harvey J. & Le, Huyen T. K., 2021. "Impact of COVID-19 on Food Shopping: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Changes in Travel to Supermarket and Grocery Stores," OSF Preprints 4hw8p, Center for Open Science.
    16. Jarrett Thibodeaux, 2016. "City racial composition as a predictor of African American food deserts," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(11), pages 2238-2252, August.
    17. Matthew, Salois, 2010. "Obesity and Diabetes, the Built Environment, and the ‘Local’ Food Economy," MPRA Paper 27945, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Ke Peng & Nikhil Kaza, 2020. "Association between Neighborhood Food Access, Household Income, and Purchase of Snacks and Beverages in the United States," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-14, October.
    19. Beydoun, May A. & Powell, Lisa M. & Wang, Youfa, 2008. "The association of fast food, fruit and vegetable prices with dietary intakes among US adults: Is there modification by family income?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2218-2229, June.
    20. Adriana Dornelles, 2019. "Impact of multiple food environments on body mass index," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(8), pages 1-14, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:20:p:15065-:d:1263270. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.