Food Desert in Oakland
I participated in Cal Civic Hacks Ideathon 2021 with 3 other team mates. With “resilience” as the overall theme of the challenge, we decided to examine food desert in Oakland to minimize food/environmental injustice in Oakland.
Since we didn’t know each other prior to the event, one of the biggest challenges were to talk through and settle on one urban issue to focus on while each of us had different interests and background.
The Big Question
How can transportation systems make food more accessible for people in the food deserts of Oakland?
Food deserts in urban places are the regions where 33% of the population lives more than 1 mile from their nearest grocery stores (USDA). This is considered to be stemmed from systematic disinvestment in low-income communities, majority of them dominantly resided by people of color.
It is an environmental justice issue because lack of nutritious food leads to chronic disease, causing financial, physical, and mental burden to the affected people. This type of inequity caused by places people reside is widened by (lack of) accessibility to transportation.
The green areas on the image to the right shows food deserts in California, some of which are neighborhoods in Oakland.
Ideas
Create more AC Transit bus stops and routes in impacted neighborhoods (West and South Oakland) to provide access to grocery stores
Increase bus frequency during peak shopping times (Saturday afternoon, according to Google Maps data)
Take into consideration that modification of transportation system alone does not tackle the root of this environmental injustice in California. Further analysis is needed to specifically point out where the additional transit stops are going to be and how the transit routes are going to be changed.