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Healthy Food Access in Merced

3/31/2016

3 Comments

 
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By Josette Mendiola

Merced County is a chiefly rural county in Central California’s San Joaquin Valley. Its 263,228 residents span 1,935 square miles. The county holds extreme economic, educational, and health disparities, and food access is characteristic of what many would describe as a food desert. According to the USDA, food deserts are defined to have high concentrations of low-income populations for whom the nearest full-service grocery store is more than 1 mile away in urban areas and more than 10 miles away in rural areas.

Local residents commonly understand the areas of South Merced and other smaller towns in the county to be more economically disadvantaged. It is important to note that these are areas where many low-income residents live and have little access to full-service grocery stores. Parts of South Merced are often considered food deserts, but this community not only lacks access to nutritional foods. Taking it one step further, South Merced is immersed in junk food, and unhealthy “marketing and absence of nutritional education,” characteristics expressed by Jerome Nathaniel in this Mic article when describing a newer, more accurate term for these areas: food swamps.  By comparison, North Merced does have access to better quality produce, although produce is still more expensive than many unhealthy processed foods. These problems discourage healthy eating, even in a region immersed in agriculture such as Merced.

However, despite obstacles, the Merced community continues to make a great effort in combatting these problems. According to the United Way of Merced, “Good health is both a community responsibility and a community benefit: It goes beyond the individual choices we make. Its roots are in the neighborhoods we build and environments we inhabit.”

A number of resources and programs are available to help improve access to healthy foods for Merced residents. For instance, every Saturday afternoon the local flee and farmers market on G Street offers a wide variety of fresh produce at reasonable prices, allowing residents to obtain healthy ingredients for the week. And when budgets are a bit tighter, there are monthly nutritional food distributions at the local junior college offered by the UC Merced Food Pantry in partnership with the Merced County Food Bank.

​Being healthy isn’t just about personal diet and exercise choices. It requires the support of a health-oriented community. The Merced community has many obstacles to overcome, but with support for the initiatives in place, this community can continue to improve its health.


Acceso a comida saludable en Merced

Por Josette Mendiola
 
El condado de Merced es principalmente rural y forma parte del Valle Central de San Joaquín en California. Tiene aproximadamente 263,228 residentes en una área de 1,935 millas al cuadrado. El condado sufre de extrema escases económica, educativa, de salud, y de acceso a alimentos que consecuentemente ocasiona ser clasificado como desierto alimenticio. Según la USDA, el condado es calificado como un desierto alimenticio por la falta de acceso a alimentos nutritivos y porque la mayoría de los residentes son de bajos ingresos. También el hecho de que los supermercados se encuentren a más de una milla de distancia en los lugares urbanos y hasta diez millas en los lugares más rurales es otra de las razones por la cual se da esta clasificación.
 
Las personas locales reconocen que las áreas del sur de Merced y otras áreas pequeñas del condado tienen desventajas económicas. Es importante saber que en estas áreas la mayoría de los residentes son de bajos ingresos y que se encuentran con poco acceso a los supermercados. Hay algunas partes del sur de Merced que son específicamente consideradas desiertos alimenticios. Pero en estas comunidades no solo escasea la comida nutritiva, si no que también hay mucha facilidad de acceso a la comida chatarra, ya que se encuentra un mercado que no es saludable, al igual que la falta de educación nutritiva. Estas características son usadas en el artículo “Mic” de Jerome Nathaniel quien describe a estas áreas con un termino mas preciso: pantanos sin alimentos. Haciendo una comparación del sur de Merced con el norte de Merced, se puede apreciar como el norte tiene mejor y más acceso a comida y alimentos de calidad, aunque productos de calidad siguen siendo más caros que la comida chatarra. Estos problemas hacen que las personas se desanimen a comer y comprar alimentos saludables, a pesar de estar en una región agrícola como Merced.  
 
Pero ante todos estos obstáculos la comunidad de Merced continua haciendo un esfuerzo para eliminar estos problemas. United Way de Merced dice, “La buena salud es responsabilidad y benéfico para la comunidad: y va más allá de lo que decidimos comer. Está enraizada en las comunidades que construimos y en el ambiente donde vivimos.”
 
Hay varios recursos y programas disponibles que se enfocan en ayudar a mejorar el acceso a alimentos saludable para los residentes de Merced. Un ejemplo de estos son la pulga o el remate y el Farmers Market, ambos suceden todos los sábados, en donde se puede comprar frutas y verduras para la semana. Otra opción para cuando siente que no tiene suficientes recursos es asistir a las distribuciones de comida ofrecidas mensualmente por UC Merced Food Pantry y el Banco de Comida del Condado de Merced.
 
El estar saludable no es solo un trabajo personal que se pueda realizar con dietas y ejercicio, sino que también requiere que la comunidad en donde se viva sea un lugar saludable. La comunidad de Merced tiene obstáculos que se deben sobrepasar, pero con la ayuda de las recientes iniciativas, el condado puede continuar mejorando la salud de la comunidad.


3 Comments
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10/26/2017 05:09:37 am

Eating healthy food is the only way through which we are able to live healthy life as far as I know. For the same reason I have been taking almost every precaution that is good for my health.

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