AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Nearly a million people living in Georgia have limited access to a full-service supermarket, according to recent figures – and many of those people are here in Augusta.
In fact, Golden Harvest Food Bank says almost all of the 25 counties it serves have food deserts in both rural and urban communities.
An analysis by the Reinvestment Fund found Georgia is seeing a growing disparity in access to grocery stores. The study blames the state’s rapid population growth.
Christina Szczepanski with the Reinvestment Fund says more people are moving into rural or urban communities that lack resources.
“Retail lags,” she said. “It takes a much longer time frame for grocery stores and other types of retailers just can’t catch up.”
As defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a food desert means people in an urban area have to travel more than a mile to a grocery store for fresh food. The distance is 10 miles for rural areas.
In Augusta, having to travel on multiple buses just to gain access to fresh food used to be the reality for Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighbors.
Part of that is being addressed by the Veggie Park farmers market at the HUB for Community Innovation on Chaffee Avenue.
Every week, 200 to 400 people walk inside the HUB looking at the fresh food options.
There’s also help through the Georgia Food for Health Program.
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