Food for Thought
Food for Thought is an event inspired by Oxfam's Hunger Banquet. The premise of the event is to provide an opportunity for education and conversation about food insecurity within the Wilmington community. Not every person in our community has the same access to healthy and nutritious food on a consistent basis. So it is up to us to explore why this is a reality.
Food for Thought
This website was created to leave you with additional resources for further independent learning. Take a moment to explore the articles and videos located below. We hope that this site will be a great opportunity for you to learn more and share some new information with others.
What is Food Insecurity?
When people are food insecure, it means that they don't have day-to-day access to enough food for normal growth and development to live a healthy life. Lack of adequate nutrition can cause everything from stunted growth to severe wasting to death. In fact, it's estimated that one child dies every 10 seconds because of hunger-related disease.
What is a Food Desert?
Defining a food desert isn't an absolute science -- factors such as location, race, socioeconomics and access to transportation are all part of the equation. Food deserts are large geographic areas where mainstream grocery stores are scarce or missing. They are found predominantly in low-income areas, although not everyone living in a food desert is poor. They can be in urban, suburban or rural communities.
Trimarchi, Maria. “What's a Food Desert?” HowStuffWorks Science, HowStuffWorks, 27 Jan. 2020.
Local Perspective: ILM
New Hanover County has six food deserts*. One is located along Market Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway towards Wilmington International Airport, two surround the campus of UNCW, one is along the Carolina Beach Road corridor down to Snow’s Cut and two are between Greenfield and Bryan Road in the downtown area.
North Carolina Social Determinants of Health by Regions
*Parr, Olivia. “16,000 People in New Hanover County Have Limited Access to Affordable, Healthy Food.” Port City Daily, 2018.
Food for Thought: Health Transformation Lecture with Robert Egger
We met up with Robert again to answer more questions about food insecurity and community engagement efforts.