One of the areas of Food Empowerment Project’s work is to highlight the inequity of the current food system in the United States, which has led to people of color in low-income communities having higher rates of obesity and diabetes. This form of environmental racism poses a serious threat to the health of future generations, but inequitable food distribution can be remedied if policy makers and communities work together.

In March 2009, Food Empowerment Project trained and sent out about a dozen volunteers around Santa Clara County, Calif., to survey the access to healthy foods in both high-income and low-income neighborhoods. We also looked at areas based on education, ethnicity and income level. Our criteria for healthy foods consisted of fresh, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, as well as alternatives to meat and dairy.

We are pleased to have completed and released our report on August 25th!
For our news release, Local Study Finds Disturbing Disparity in Availability of Healthful Foods

Or download a copy of our report

In collaboration with Santa Clara University (thanks to Marty Saunders and Iris Stewart-Frey), Food Empowerment Project now has GIS (geographic information system) maps that display which districts of the San José City Council, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the California State Assembly and Senate are most likely to be impacted by inequitable food distribution.

The maps have been organized according to ethnicity (Asian, Latino, Caucasian and non-Caucasian [a combination of people of color]) and poverty rates (percent of low-income households per census tract).

Below you will find the non-Caucasian maps for each of the districts mentioned above.

San José City Council Map: Download
Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors: Download
California State Assembly: Download
California State Senate: Download


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