VIDEO: The Impacts Of Food Deserts

LOWNDES COUNTY, MIss.(WCBI)—It can be easy to take for granted; grabbing a loaf of bread, gallon of milk, or eggs from the grocery store when it’s just down the road.

For some obtaining those few items is a weekly struggle. It’s called a food desert.

“It’s really difficult to live a healthy life if you can not access healthy food,”said MSU Professor of Sociology Leslie Hossfeld.

Food insecurity is an issue that plagues rural towns throughout the country but especially in Mississippi.

The Mississippi Food Insecurity Project conducted a study. It showed Mississippi has the highest food insecurity rate in the country. Crawford Mayor Willie Parson says that’s not hard to believe.

“For our area we don’t have grocery stores, we have little convenient stores but we have to go so many miles to get groceries. If we could bring some grocery stores or convenient stores in our neighborhood it would be best for the community,”said Parson.

Hossfeld works with MFIP.

“Mississippi imported 90 percent of the food it consumes and so in an agricultural state this is very disconcerting,”said Hossfeld.

She spends a good bit of time finding ways to combat food deserts throughout the state of Mississippi.

“We are very interested in local foods. How can we create a strong infrastructure around foods?  So, that people are growing their own food and consuming that but also helping small scale farmers grow their farm businesses and meet some of the needs in food deserts,”said Hossfeld.

The town of Artesia, recently, got a Dollar General. Hossfeld says that is definitely a step in the right direction but they need to continue moving forward.

” What we do need to do is, think about partnerships with the Dollar General or small convenient stores on cold storage and ways to highlight and make prominent fresh fruits and vegetables in those locations,”said Hossfeld.

Mississippi reaches more than 20 percent Food insecurity. The national average is around 13 percent.