Disparity by design
Hunger is not evenly spread across the US, nor within its cities.
Even in the richest parts of urban America there are pockets of deep food insecurity, and more often than not it is Blackand Latino communities that are hit hardest.
As an urban planning academic who teaches a course on food justice, I m aware that this disparity is in large part through design. For over a century, urban planning has been used as a toolkit for maintaining white supremacy that has divided U.S. cities along racial lines. And this has contributed to the development of so-called ‘food deserts’ – areas of limited access to reasonably priced, healthy, culturally relevant foods – and ‘food swamps’ – places with a preponderance of stores selling fast and junk food.