2nd Opinion: Texas obesity & our ‘food deserts’

This spring, I started working with the Christian Life Commission, helping to advance hunger and food policy at the Texas Capitol. What an eye-opening experience it has been. Between 2007 and 2011, I served two terms in the legislature, representing a district in southwest Austin and western Travis County, and during that time, I worked on many issues and learned a lot about many more. The realities of hunger in Texas weren’t really on my legislative radar—perhaps because I thought I already was fairly clued in on the issue.

Prior to my time in public office, I spent nearly 20 years working with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. I’ve encountered many individuals and families in crisis and in need. I’ve run emergency shelters where we fed hundreds of families every year through support from government-funded programs and generous donations from the community. Through our church, my family has had ample opportunity to volunteer with ministries that aim to meet folks’ basic needs. And I’ve definitely heard and read plenty of news reports about such topics as childhood obesity, the rising epidemic of Type II diabetes and the prohibitive cost of fresh fruits and vegetables for many.

What I’m just now fully realizing and understanding is what huge systemic problems lie at the root of hunger and poverty in Texas.

I’ve been struck with the knowledge that one in six Texas families struggles to afford food—the second-highest rate in the nation. One in four of our precious Texas children lives in a home that will lack enough food this year. I’ve learned terms like “food desert” and “grocery gap” and why they are huge problems for so many urban and rural communities. Many Texans live in areas that lack convenient access to a supermarket. This is a food desert, and it means the community lacks grocery stores but often has fast-food restaurants and convenience stores that sell soda, snacks and few healthy options. Texas leads the nation in grocery gaps; we have the fewest supermarkets per capita of any state.

For probably the first time in human history, we are a society in which obesity is linked to poverty. Children of today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, often due to obesity and disease resulting from eating empty calories instead of healthy food.

For the first time in more than a generation, Texas is failing to fully fund public education, which will of course have dramatic impact on our children and our long-term economic viability. It isn’t hard to imagine that P.E. will be one of the first things to go, especially in poor school districts, in spite of the fact we know regular exercise during the school day improves learning and test performance. Rigorous physical activity also teaches persistence, discipline and responsibility.

We are upset about childhood obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a myriad of other “lifestyle” conditions. We worry about the toll these diseases take on individuals and our over-burdened health care system. We cringe when we hear statistics about how many families are served by food banks. We express concern about the lack of access to quality produce, about the fact chips are cheaper than apples. We fret about the lack of P.E. in our schools.

We wonder why some of our students just can’t seem to learn and why some schools continue to underperform. And we talk about all these things like they are separate, discrete problems when they really are the expression, the embodiment of one huge problem—the social injustice at the root of hunger and poverty in Texas.

Food deserts and grocery gaps are due to a convergence of social, economic and public policy factors. These include the flight of supermarkets to the suburbs, inadequate public transportation and the lack of healthy foods at most convenience stores. This helps fuel a downward economic cycle that makes neighborhoods or towns less attractive, decreases the availability of jobs and hurts local schools.

One lesson I learned from working on this issue this session is that many hands are working to make Texas a healthier place and provide healthy food throughout our state. As Christians, our voices are unique, because we echo the ministry of Jesus when he demonstrated the kingdom of God through feeding and also being fed. In addition to the good work of so many churches feeding hungry people in Jesus’ name, we can support incentives that attract supermarkets to under-served areas and spur the opening of sustainable, small-scale grocers and gardens in low-income neighborhoods. One retired Baptist grocer in Virginia is making this his retirement work. We can ask for and support programs and policies that create jobs, increase economic activity in low-income rural and urban areas, revitalize neighborhoods and towns, and help our children thrive and learn.

We know intellectually and in our heart of hearts that children and adults must have their basic needs for food and shelter met before they can focus on anything else, including learning.

Knowing this, and out of concern for the “least of these,” it is imperative that we work through our churches and in collaboration with our elected officials to end this injustice.

Valinda Bolton is a consultant with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission and a member of First Baptist Church in Austin.