Community Perspectives: Improving Food Access

Public Health—Seattle & King County is a longstanding recipient of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant supporting Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH). In King County, the overarching goal of this grant is to improve health, prevent chronic disease, and reduce health disparities for African-born, African American, and Asian American populations in south Seattle, SeaTac, and Tukwila through nutrition, physical activity, and building community-clinical linkage strategies.

Northwest Harvest is one of several partners on the REACH grant engaging in strategies to address nutrition, specifically to improve access to and affordability of culturally-relevant foods. Low-income populations, individuals, and groups not represented in the dominant culture consistently face barriers to accessing food that is nourishing, affordable, and culturally desirable. These barriers may be around convenience, access to transportation, personal mobility, cultural preferences, and other factors. Surveying the current landscape of food availability in the REACH geographical area and understanding the unique needs of the focus populations was the starting point for defining strategies to improve access to culturally relevant foods.

For more details and information, check out the following resources –

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