Community Food Security - read the Hunger Commission's food access study and download free food access study materials including curriculum for nutrition education workshops.

Food Access in Del Paso Heights/North Sacramento

Del Paso Heights and North Sacramento, like many other low-income communities nationwide, have been affected by the national trend of supermarket consolidation. Retail trade has responded to the majority of the working population's need for a multi-purpose food source. On the whole, United States' families have less time to shop at different stores for different products and so a ‘One Stop Superstore Supermarket' has evolved. Supermarkets have grown to enormous sizes, the average supermarket spanning 55,000- 65,000 square feet. This huge size enables supermarkets to stock a variety of food from all areas of the world plus a whole host of non-food related items all under one roof. A convenient, easy and affordable store has many advantages to the customer. But this enlargement of supermarkets has also brought a consolidation of stores, generally increasing the financial risk to establish such a large store in any community. For that reason, low-income areas normally have fewer stores with less sellingfloor space and less variety. Zy Weinberg noted in, No Place to Shop, that, "Overall supermarkets were predominantly located in middle- and upper-income communities…Zip codes with the most households on public assistance had more than 20 percent fewer supermarkets than zip codes with low numbers ofhouseholds on assistance."

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