There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
To investigate how low-income rural residents living in food deserts access the normal
food system and food safety net services within their communities, and explore how
social, personal, and environment drives food access and food choice.
Seven focus groups (90 minutes each) were conducted with 2 moderators present and
were audiotaped.
Food deserts in rural Minnesota and Iowa.
Fifty-seven residents (Minnesota: 13 females and 8 males; Iowa: 24 females and 12
males). Most participants were white and had not completed high school or higher education.
Food choice and food access among rural residents.
Transcripts were evaluated for consistency and coded for themes and subthemes.
Three dominant themes influence food access and choice and were identified as: (a)
personal and household determinants of food; (b) social and cultural environment;
and (c) structure of place or the external environment.
Personal, environmental, and dietary behavioral factors are all interconnected; each
plays a major role in influencing dietary behavior and the resulting health outcomes
in rural Minnesotans and Iowans living in food deserts. However, although personal
factors impact eating behavior for rural people, it is the physical and social environments
that place constraints on food access, even in civically engaged communities. Food
access may be improved in communities where civic engagement is strong, and where
local organizations join in providing solutions to decrease barriers of food access
by increasing access to the normal and food safety net systems and by creating informal
alternatives, such as community gardens and informal transportation networks, or enhancing
federal programs through greater volunteer involvement.