HJAR Jan/Feb 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  JAN / FEB 2023 41 Joseph W. Thompson, MD, MPH President and Chief Executive Officer Arkansas Center for Health Improvement • Create strong community partnerships to support new entrepreneurial strate- gies to bring healthy food options into areas with limited access. • Use integrated funding combining pri- vate and public dollars. For foundations: • Partner with foundations and other organizations that have similar inter- ests to provide increased funding and larger grants, enabling more impactful projects that increase access to fresh, nutritious food in low-income, low- access communities. Of course, the above groups are not the only Arkansans who can help address the issue. Community members were already establishing community gardens, organiz- ing farmers markets, and starting farm- to-school programs before the pandemic. New grocery pickup and home delivery models that could provide innovative so- lutions emerged during the pandemic. More models for addressing the issue will emerge over time, andArkansas should be ready to adopt approaches that are shown to achieve establishing a legislative committee on food access; creating a cross-agency, cross-sector council on food access; and establishing measures and track- ing processes for long-termhealth out- comes such as a decrease in diabetes, hypertension, and other diet-related illnesses. • Incorporate support for food access into state fiscal policy. This could in- clude offering tax incentives for gro- cers opening stores in low-income, low-access areas; establishing a loan program for projects increasing food access in these areas; and providing pi- lot grant funds for food access startups in underserved areas. • Improve access to food benefit pro- grams such as the Supplemental Nu- trition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the Special Supplemental Nutri- tion Program for Women, Infants and Children, orWIC, to help food-insecure individuals and families afford food. For cities and towns: • Catalyze community-driven, creative models to increase food access. results. There are many reasons whyArkan- sans may have inadequate nutrition; their ZIP code should not be one of them. n REFERENCES 1 Arkansas Center for Health Improve- ment. “Food deserts in Arkansas.” Accessed Nov. 28, 2022. https://achi.net/wp-content/ uploads/2022/11/221116A_Food-Deserts-Fact- Sheet-Update.pdf 2 Opportunity Index. “Arkansas: 2019.” Accessed Nov. 28, 2022. https://opportunityindex.org/ detail/5/ 3 Coleman-Jensen, A.; Rabbit, M.P.; Gregory, C.A.; Singh, A. “Household Food Security in the United States in 2021.” U.S. Department of Ag- riculture, Economic Research Service. (Septem- ber 2022). https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/ publications/104656/err-309.pdf 4 Bodor, J.N.; Rice, J.C.; Farley, T.A.; et al. “The Association Between Obesity and Urban Food Environments.” Journal of Urban Health 87, is- sue 5 (2010):771-781. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11524-010-9460-6 5 Zeng, D.; Thomsen. M.R.; Nayga, R.M., Jr.; Bennett, J.L. “Supermarket access and child- hood bodyweight: Evidence from store open- ings and closings.” Economics & Human Biol- ogy 33 (May 2019):78-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ehb.2019.01.004 6 Alviola, P.A.; Nayge, R.M., Jr.; Thomsen, M.R.; et al. “The effect of fast-food restaurants on childhood obesity: A school level analysis.” Economics & Hu- man Biology 12 (January 2014):110-119. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ehb.2013.05.001 7 Sharkey, J.R.; Johnson, C.M.; Dean, W.R. “Food Access and Perceptions of the Community and Household Food Environment as Correlates of Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Rural Seniors. BMC Geriatrics 10 (2010):32. doi: 10.1186/1471-2318- 10-32