Amazon: The Missing Piece in the Puzzle for America’s Food Desert Crisis
How the Tech Giant’s Acquisition of Whole Foods Has Changed the Equation for Childhood Obesity
You’ve seen the headlines: Amazon, A Successful Brand but a Destroyer of Local Business. With looming skepticism of big business, is there any good to come from this powerhouse other than your package arriving quickly at your doorstep?
Without question, Amazon has established itself as one of the most powerful companies in the world. While this has come at the cost of public ridicule, hindering the company’s reputation, Amazon’s growing empire following its acquisition of Whole Foods has unforeseen opportunities to change the face of America’s food insecurity crisis. With its unrivaled resources, Amazon can and will end America’s food desert crisis.
Food Deserts Are in Your Backyard: A Local Perspective
Living within the Georgetown Bubble, it’s easy to take the plentiful array of amenities for granted. Within walking distance, you can fulfill all of your needs without thinking twice at some of the most well-known and reputable retailers in the United States. However, these same amenities within our community make it just as easy to become blind to the fact that these resources vanish merely ten miles from our vibrant area. While Georgetown sits within the affluent Ward 2, Wards 7 and 8 just east of the Anacostia River are living in mere shambles. Nearly half of children in Ward 8 were living in poverty and suffering from obesity; in the more affluent Ward 3, only three percent were living in poverty and twelve percent suffering from obesity. While this staggering difference demonstrates the linkage between those living in poverty and suffering from obesity, the latent cause of this correlation remains uncovered: food deserts.
The United States Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a part of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas. Food deserts are not limited to the DC area. As the Let’s Move! campaign concludes, over 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in urban and rural neighborhoods that are more than a mile away from a grocery store. The lack of fresh food providers has resulted in a dependence on fast food and local convenience stores and has resulted in skyrocketed obesity within impoverished communities. It is through the lack of resources and instead, reliance on unhealthy alternatives that present the strongest correlation between childhood obesity and food deserts. In Washington DC alone:
Low-income communities have 25 percent fewer supermarkets than their wealthier neighbors. Residents of Northwest Washington D.C. have access to between six and eight grocery stores, including Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods — one store for every 10,000 residents. Across the Anacostia River, inhabitants of wards seven and eight live in a food desert–one store for every 160,000 people.
This harrowing trend, however, is not limited to Washington DC and extends nationwide and demands a series of organized responses to combat.
Local Intervention’s Indirect Role in Eliminating Food Insecurity
Innovative interventions have taken place on the local level; initiatives like that of Indiana University’s Garden on the Go have achieved an array of success with the implementation of their mobile food delivery service. Success on the local level, however, has been the result of a strong grass-roots effort by the local community and of providing the necessary education about nutrition. The local response in Indiana would be difficult to replicate and unrealistic to expect from other local communities on a nationwide scale which further demands a powerful entity to step up to the plate and respond. With the foot-dragging constantly occurring within Congress, a response from a government entity is unreliable. At the end of the day, combatting childhood obesity resides in not solely eliminating inaccessibility but also educating the public on healthy nutrition practices. While local interventions will only be able to put a mere dent in the behemoth that is food deserts, there is definite value to be driven from local responses. In the same sense, a more nationalized effort is needed to combat the issue on a larger scale. Now, unlike ever before, Amazon has stepped up to the plate with an unparalleled ability to combat America’s food desert epidemic with Amazon Fresh.
Amazon’s Golden Horse to Ending Food Insecurity: Amazon Fresh
Following Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017, the global powerhouse expanded its influence into the grocery sector with its service Amazon Fresh. The grocery delivery and pickup service operate primarily through the Whole Foods Market where customers within a few clicks can choose their items, pick a date and time, and receive their groceries at their doorstep in the course of a few hours. With an abundance of items to choose from ranging from food to personal care items and expansion occurring in over 2000 cities, there seems to be little or no limitations standing in the way of the global giant from stopping the food crisis at its core. However, when reflecting on the prices of Amazon Fresh, one can see that they are generally on the more expensive side of groceries which would instantly lose the price-sensitive market of consumers: those living in food deserts.
Recently, however, an online pilot program by the Food and Nutrition Service enables those utilizing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in select regions to pay for their groceries online on sites including Amazon. Currently, over 43 million use SNAP benefits but find themselves inhibited by living in food deserts and spending their benefits at convenience stores that lack the necessary nutrition. However, when companies like Amazon create opportunities to purchase groceries online with SNAP benefits, it circumvents the necessity of building new supermarkets in impoverished areas and still achieves the intended effect. This provides a convenient alternative for families and localities alike and allows consumers to enjoy nutritious meals at an affordable price: a win-win for all stakeholders. If these benefits extend to a national stage, “the move away from brick and mortar grocery stores will be a convenient plus for some Americans, but for many more, it will spell the difference between food on the table and an empty pantry”. Amazon originally limited Amazon Fresh to prime users but has extended the program exclusively to SNAP users and has taken specific steps towards reaching this segment. Amazon’s model promotes usage by these users by eliminating shipping costs and guaranteeing low prices and freshness of products.
Should this program truly extend to the destined goal of being available nationwide, Americans will be one step closer to eliminating food deserts; however, this is truly only one, while major, piece in the puzzle of childhood obesity. While Amazon can circumvent obstacles roadblocking local entities, health outcomes alone will not be changed overnight through the availability of better food. Combined with the value of local responses, the partnership between Whole Foods and Amazon combines two entities that have recognized these obstacles and have constructed a model with their resources to overcome these challenges and inflict widespread change across the nation. Emphasizing the importance of this relationship, John Foraker, President of Annie’s Homegrown, in a recent interview with Business Insider stated how “the thought of Whole Foods mission combined with the technology and the ability of a company like Amazon to help conquer some of the last-mile issues that have prevented access and distribution into really difficult places seems like a golden opportunity”. The partnership is truly a match made in heaven for those living in food deserts and accordingly, those suffering from childhood obesity.
Last Mile Issues and Going Forward
A set of last-mile issues seemingly presented for Amazon is the inability of the impoverished to access the internet-based Amazon. While this seems like a grand roadblock for Amazon’s potential utility for this audience, counters to this claim include Pew Research Centers’ recent article in June which displays how cell phone ownership in the United States has surpassed 96% and 81% of Americans are owners of smartphones. Even among the lowest income groups, cell phone ownership remains high. Not to mention, there are many public amenities like public libraries that provide opportunities to access the internet which would allow customers to order their groceries directly to their home from the library.
Amazon has an unmatched ability towards intervention in eliminating food deserts; however, this response is an intervention and not a solution. For as America’s food swamps are being drained and food deserts are being made bountiful, steps still must be taken to confront the wicked problem of childhood obesity. Resources are merely one piece of a bigger puzzle of eliminating childhood obesity. The issue remains pertinent and demands attention from citizens like yourself. Participation in local initiatives that stress education on nutrition could be the next biggest piece in the puzzle. Now that resources are being made available, a shift towards changing the traditional American lifestyle of burgers and fries from fast-food restaurants and instead, a shift to one of health-focused eating can and will ensure generations of prosperous individuals for the years to come.
