Bill > AR103

Introduced Session

This resolution respectfully urges Congress to study food deserts and the feasibility of addressing the issue at the federal level. Food deserts are geographic areas where residents have few to no convenient options for obtaining affordable and healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables. Disproportionately found in high poverty areas, food deserts make it more difficult for kids, families, and communities to obtain and maintain healthy eating habits. Food deserts are most common in areas with smaller populations, higher rates of abandoned or vacant homes, and residents who have lower levels of education, lower incomes, and higher rates of unemployment. There is no single cause of food deserts but there are contributing factors that cause them, such as: transportation challenges, unhealthy convenience food accessibility, and high cost of healthy foods. More than 1.3 million New Jerseyans live in food deserts where regular access to healthy food is hindered by factors including the absence of supermarkets, poor public transit, low internet use, and high poverty rates. Current State policies and programs are not enough to fully address the food desert problem in New Jersey. Continued food desert research at the federal level is necessary to develop feasible and actionable policy that will address the issue at the State level. Supplementing and expanding existing federal level food desert research, such as the "United States Department of Agricultures "Food Access Research Atlas" and "Food Desert Locator", through the incorporation ongoing research will allow for continual new data that will help inform innovative approaches to solving the food desert crisis across the country and in the State. A study to determine the feasibility of addressing food deserts at the federal level should be conducted by Congress as it will help guide future state level food desert research by providing a framework on whether future actionable policy should focus on micro or macro level interventions.

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Alixon Collazos-Gill (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Children, Families and Food Security Committee (on 02/08/2024)

Official Document