SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey's Economic Development Authority has identified and ranked food deserts in the state, with Camden and Atlantic City on top of the list, after a comprehensive study. The next step is figuring out how to solve the problem.
"We have close to a quarter of a billion dollars in resources to deploy throughout the state within these food desert communities to try to make a meaningful and long lasting impact," said NJ EDA Vice President of Economic Security Tara Colton.
Healthy food and money are abundant resources in New Jersey, so why are people going to bed hungry? There's no excuse for that, said Colton. She said the EDA's goal is to come up with a plan to utilize the $240 million in available funding to figure out solutions.
More New Jersey residents than ever are getting federal assistance with SNAP benefits to buy food, according to Colton, but they don’t have many options for actually spending it, especially when it comes to grocery delivery services.
"One of the things that we envision in supporting with these funds would be to help bring more New Jersey food retailers online to accept SNAP," she said.
A tremendous amount of data was collected to define what makes a food desert, and it isn't a simple calculation of population and proximity to supermarkets. The key components are three As: availability, accessibility and affordability of healthy food.
Colton says they are open to more interpretations to define a food desert though, and public input is encouraged about that as well as ideas for solutions. There are two online information sessions scheduled for next week. More information is available at the EDA's website.
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