TKG LEARN: Is Food A Race Issue?

Is Food A Race Issue? Oakland’s People’s Grocery Examines Connection At Commonwealth ClubKids
By Mehroz Baig

There are many discussions about race and demographics—how race factors into crime and incarceration, for example, or race as a factor in employment and unemployment. However, one subject that may not obviously be tied to race is food and access to healthy food.

The connection is not explicitly based on race; socioeconomic factors play a major role in access to healthy food. For example, free lunches for children in public schools who qualify for them are based on socioeconomic information. However, larger percentages of African-Americans and Hispanics in the U.S. were living below the poverty line in 2011 than whites or those identified as “other.”

That means more children who are of Hispanic or African-American backgrounds need free or reduced-priced school lunches. Additionally, socioeconomic factors directly correlate to cost of living, and for many, the ability to purchase organic food simply doesn’t exist because of the higher cost associated with it. READ MORE…

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