In three Nashville neighborhoods putting decent food on the table is a constant struggle. The areas, known as “food deserts,” are filled with junk food and not much else. Predictably, residents who live in these neighborhoods are suffering from poor health. But, there’s a new effort to fight food deserts, as WPLN’s Anne Marshall reports.
In Nashville's poorest communities, body mass indexes, a critical weight to height ratio and measure of health, are on average higher than in other neighborhoods.And there are hints that the reason for that difference may not lie simply between individual plates and mouths, but in what food can be found closest to Nashville's poorest homes.
It’s easy for Vernell McHenry to buy a bag of potato chips and a coke in her East Nashville neighborhood. It takes much more effort to shop for a fresh bunch of broccoli or a fuzzy ripe Georgia peach.