Food deserts: How “bringing home the bacon” varies across neighborhoods

Abstract

Communication is used to engage and involve students in addressing food deserts and developing sustainable solutions. This application-based activity allows students to explain the reality of food deserts, map the food deserts in an area of interest, develop an intervention, and present their communication intervention to a nonprofit interlocutor. The goals of this unit activity are to guide students along the research process, argument formation, and advocacy-centered presentations for the marginalized group’s access to affordable healthy food options.

Courses

This activity is great for high school and college students in classes such as Public Speaking, Health Communication, Rhetoric of Critical Health, and Environmental Communication.

Objectives

By the end of this activity, students will be able to (1) visualize and communicate disparities within food deserts; (2) develop community-engaged and advocacy-oriented presentations; and (3) distinguish key factors differentiating food availability utilizing mapping techniques.