How Rural New Hampshire Residents Struggle to Secure Healthy, Affordable Foods

Ensuring access to comprehensive grocery stores that offer healthy and affordable foods is central to eradicating hunger, according to “How Far Would You Drive for Fresh Food: Some Rural New Hampshire Residents Navigate a Dismal Food Landscape,” a research brief by the Carsey Institute. The brief reports the experiences of 18 rural New Hampshire families who often struggle to obtain healthy foods.

According to the brief, approximately 23.5 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket, which limits families’ access to quality foods. Low-income families with young children and limited transportation feel this distance more keenly. The families in rural locations reported traveling up to an hour to buy their groceries, shopping at multiple food stores and growing their own produce. These efforts to secure groceries were limited when transportation, financial means and spousal support dwindled. Many mothers noted that they relied on school lunches to affordably feed their children, but that they were not pleased with the quality of the food. The brief adds that, as of 2005, only 6 to 7 percent of school meals met the United States Department of Agriculture’s nutritional standards.

The data are from interviews from 18 families with children under age 18 who lived in two densely populated but geographically isolated towns in northern New Hampshire. The issue brief was published online in February 2011 by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, a policy research center committed to community development and vulnerable children and families.
 

Read the report.