Study Overview and Key Findings Improving healthy food access in low-income communities continues to be a public health challenge. One promising approach has been opening supermarkets in low-income neighborhoods or converting existing food retail operations to emphasize healthy options. The overall goal of this study was to use a case study approach to understand the More
Keywords: Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: March 2023
Resource Type: Research Summary
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail Healthy Communities
Inadequate consumption of healthy food is an ongoing public health issue in the United States. Food availability measures of supply versus consumption of healthy foods are disconnected in many studies. There is a need for an objective assessment of the food environment in order to assess how the food supply aligns with the Healthy Eating More
Keywords: Corner store, Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: October 2022
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail Healthy Communities
In the United States, low-income, underserved rural and urban settings experience poor access to healthy, affordable food. Introducing new food outlets in these locations has shown mixed results for improving healthy food consumption. The Healthy Community Stores Case Study Project (HCSCSP) explored an alternative strategy: supporting mission-driven, locally owned, healthy community food stores to improve More
Keywords: Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: July 2022
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail Healthy Communities
Mission-driven, independently-owned community food stores have been identified as a potential solution to improve access to healthy foods, yet to date there is limited information on what factors contribute to these stores’ success and failure. Using a multiple case study approach, this study examined what makes a healthy community food store successful and identified strategies More
Keywords: Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: July 2022
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail Healthy Communities
Community engagement is well established as a key to improving public health. Prior food environment research has largely studied community engagement as an intervention component, leaving much unknown about how food retailers may already engage in this work. The purpose of this study was to explore the community engagement activities employed by neighborhood food retailers More
Keywords: Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: June 2022
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail Healthy Communities
This study aimed to examine how food environments around family child care homes (FCCHs) are associated with the healthfulness of foods served to children. The study included cross-sectional data from a mail survey of 132 Mississippi FCCHs. Rural FCCHs with higher counts of supermarkets, convenience stores, and produce stores had lower compliance with selected best More
Keywords: Child Care/Preschool, Neighborhood
Healthy Eating Research (HER), Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and The Food Trust have developed the first national research agenda focused on healthy food retail. The research agenda is the result of a multi-step process, including commissioned research and a Healthy Retail Research convening, which More
Keywords: Corner store, Digital marketing, Food advertising, Food insecurity, Food outlet, Food systems, Front-of-package labeling, Fruits and vegetables, Grocery store, Home, In-store marketing, Neighborhood, Restaurant, Rural, Supermarket, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Urban, Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Date: November 2020
Resource Type: Report Special Journal Issue
Focus Areas: Food Access Food Retail
Previous research reported modest associations between food environments near schools and adiposity among children overall. The associations within sociodemographic subgroups have not been synthesized. This review assessed the evidence on the associations between food environments near schools and childhood obesity within different demographic and socio-economic subgroups. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched to identify studies More
Keywords: Body mass index (BMI), Fast food, Food outlet, Neighborhood, Supermarket
Date: April 2020
Resource Type: Journal Article
Focus Areas: Food Retail Healthy Communities School & After School
One of the most pressing unmet challenges for preventing and controlling epidemic obesity is ensuring that socially disadvantaged populations benefit from relevant public health interventions. Obesity levels are disproportionately high in ethnic minority, low-income, and other socially marginalized U.S. population groups. Current policy, systems, and environmental change interventions target obesity-promoting aspects of physical, economic, social, More
This study aimed to examine whether a newly opened supermarket in the Bronx, NY, changed household food availability and consumption of healthy and unhealthy food items among families who lived within half a mile of the new supermarket. Participants were recruited through street intercept surveys, with a subset of respondents later completing a 24-hour dietary More
Keywords: Food insecurity, Fruits and vegetables, Grocery store, Neighborhood, Supermarket, Urban