Better Access, Higher Vulnerability: What 9,033 California Tracts Reveal
The USDA's food desert framework assumes that distance to grocery stores is a primary barrier to food access.[1] Federal policy has directed resources toward bringing stores closer to underserved communities, from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to state-level incentive programs.[2]
Our earlier analysis of 7 Bay Area and major metro counties suggested this framing may be backwards: the most vulnerable communities already had closer stores, not farther ones. But that finding was limited to
Dec 2025
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Food Security