Tannya Forcone, Michael Outrich and Glennon Sweeney are Kirwan Institute researchers apart of the community-university collaboration. Credit: Akayla Gardner | Lantern Reporter
The quality and price of food in a city can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, and new research at Ohio State is mapping that disparity.
The Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity partnered with several community partners and Ohio State colleges to study food insecurity on Columbus’ South Side.
The study is part of a larger community/university initiative called Food-mapping for Empowerment, Access and Sustainable Transformation, also known as FEAST, which aims to understand availability of healthy food in Ohio and how people interact with their food landscape.
Glennon Sweeney, senior research associate at Kirwan, said the South Side was the second neighborhood study to be completed of 12 proposed neighborhoods, but that number might increase depending on funding.
Sweeney said voluntary participants were asked to map a normal route to get food in their area by taking photos of “barriers and supports” on their journey.
On the South Side, the participants included seven African-American boys and their parents or guardians involved in My Brother’s Keeper Ohio, a national initiative to support the achievement of young men and boys of color.
Each participant was given $20 and asked to make a normal trip to get food in their neighborhood. This process is repeated at different times throughout the year.
Sweeney said participants were given money because, as researchers, they were interested in the value of $20 and how it fluctuates. They also gave them money to spend on food so they wouldn’t have to pay out of pocket.
Neighborhood participants are split into groups and asked to submit 10 to 15 photos that best represent their experience buying food.
“It was never intended to be a random sample. It was always intended to be a very purposive sample, so by having the community partner determine who would be interested, it was an invitation, and then we had the teens and the parents accept that invitation,” Tannya Forcone, a graduate research associate in anthropology, said.
Sweeney said that prior to the study, each household is surveyed for its income and measured for its level of food insecurity based on USDA standards.
Sweeney said youth participants said they were being discriminated against by store owners and that one of the major findings of the South Side study was that store owners were charging certain customers different prices than others.
One photo from a participant showed a receipt for three items all labeled “NO TAX” with prices totaling $19.25.
Researchers also found that store owners were selling expired food.
“I would also argue that even having a Kroger, is that not all Krogers are created equal or stocked equal. What you tend to see is that food costs more in lower-income communities, and that’s a general trend that you see nationwide,” Forcone said. “That those who are least able to buy food pay the most.”
The data collected from participants is turned into a story map, an interactive map that details the average transportation, education and food opportunities for people in different areas. It also creates a visual map of the routes participants used to buy food.
Michael Outrich, social researcher and a geographic information systems specialist, said a year and a half ago COTA buses rerouted, leaving fewer bus stops in low-income areas, including the South Side.
Participants expressed difficulty accessing grocery stores with the change in bus routes, which for some come less frequently or the stops are moved farther from their residence.
“Neighborhoods are poor because of policies … We can start with slavery, or we can start in the 20th century, it’s up to you,” Sweeney said. “But I can tell you the exact policies that made these neighborhoods the way they are. They have to do with housing and development, highways, schools. It’s structural.”
Sweeney said there is a task force being implemented and led by Ohio State Extension community catalyst Stacie Burbage to empower community members to create solutions to food accessibility, including contacting the city of Columbus for code enforcement against unethical business practices.
The task force will also put on community events such as a corner store cooking series.
The Kirwan Institute — along with FEAST partners — plans to continue food-mapping studies across Ohio to make more conclusive findings on food insecurity in suburban areas.
“We will have poverty, we will have food insecurity as long as we are capitalists unless we regulate our system properly,” Sweeney said.
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