Why it’s Easier to Get a Burger than
Broccoli on West Broadway:
The geography of food insecurity in Louisville, with a focus on
the West End and East Downtown
Samuel Raskin
Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellow
Community Farm Alliance
Louisville, KY
February 2006
Community Farm Alliance
1
Food insecurity exists here
The communities that make up Louisville’s West End and East Downtown are
food insecure, meaning that many individuals and families living here do not have access
to enough healthy food. This injustice is created by a related set of problems. Like other
low income communities of color across the nation, the food retail sector in West
Louisville and East Downtown does not meet local demand, leaving community members
without good options for buying food within their neighborhoods
1
. Since many residents
of the West End and East Downtown do not have access to vehicles, they become
marooned within a food desert, where they cannot purchase the nutritious foods
necessary for healthy living
2
. Often, the only remaining option for members of these
communities is to buy the readily available unhealthy foods, especially fast food. As a
result, the standard of living is lower in the West End and East Downtown than it is in
other parts of Louisville, and residents are at risk for food related health problems
3
.
Map 1
1
Nord, Mark; Andrews, Margaret Putting Food on the Table: Household food security in the US Amber
Waves, Feb. 2003 Vol. 1, issue 1 ERS USDA
2
http://www.fooddeserts.org/
3
Vosoris, Nichola T.; Tarasuk Valerie S. Household Food Insufficiency is Associated with Poorer Health
2003 The American Society for Nutritional Sciences
J. Nutr. 133:120-126, January 2003
2
Geography and demographics
West Louisville stretches north from the Algonquin Parkway and West from Roy
Wilkins Drive. It includes the neighborhoods of Algonquin, Park Hill, Park Duvalle,
Chickasaw, Shawnee, Portland, California, Parkland and Russell. According to the last
census, about 51,000 of West Louisville’s 64,741 inhabitants are African American. The
region is also home to 12,282 White people, 9,779 of whom live in the Portland
neighborhood
4
. West Louisville is very poor. By census tract the average median
household income is $20,900, about half of the Jefferson County-wide median of
$39,457
5
. In some parts of the West End, the median household income drops below
$10,000, less than ¼ of the county median.
Map 2
East Downtown is composed of the Phoenix Hill, Smoketown, and Shelby Park
neighborhoods and its demographics are similar to the West End’s. 10,224 people
inhabit East Downtown. 6,971 of them are African American and 2,840 are White
6
.
4
2000 Census of population and housing, Kentucky State Data Center
5
Census 2000, Summary File 3, P53
6
2000 Census of population and housing, Kentucky State Data Center
3
Poverty is especially striking in East Downtown where the median household income is
only $14,333 when averaged by census tract.
Table 1
Race and Income
78
Region
African American Population
(%)
Average Median
Household Income by
Census Tract ($)
West Louisville
79 20,900
East Downtown
68 14,333
Jefferson County
19 39,457
Store locations and food prices
The cost and quality of food available to Louisville residents depends on where
they live within the city. Market basket research conducted in Louisville/Jefferson
county in spring of 2005 confirms that food prices vary greatly depending on where food
is purchased
9
. Researchers surveyed stores across the county for the price and
availability of a 12 item market basket of foods that reflects the USDA’s food pyramid
eating recommendations
10
. Their findings were dismal. The research shows that
residents of the low-income West End and East Downtown areas are likely to have to
spend the most to buy healthy foods and to have the hardest time getting high quality
foods.
The major problem for residents of the West End and East Downtown is that their
areas are underserved by the types of stores that carry a good selection of high quality,
low priced foods. The market basket research shows that supermarkets and superstores
provide customers with the best combination of quality and affordability when compared
to other types of food sellers (see tables 2 and 3). The West End and East Downtown are
underserved by both supermarkets and superstores (see map 3). Neither of these areas
has a superstore. Although there are some supermarkets in the West End, its residents are
still significantly underserved
11
. Throughout the West End there is an average of only 1
full service grocer per 25,000 residents, compared to a Jefferson County wide ratio of 1
per every 12,500 residents
12
(see map 3).
7
2000 Census of population and housing, Kentucky State Data Center
8
8
Making Connections Kentucky Population Research, Fall 2000
9
Conducted by the West Louisville Food Assessment Research Advisory Team (RAT), Chair; Dr. Lisa
Markowitz, Anthropology, University of Louisville
10
www.mypyramid.gov
11
Louisville Metro Health Department, a listing of all stores and restaurants
licensed to sell food
12
For the purpose of this study we counted only superstores, supermarkets and natural food supermarkets
as full service grocers
4
Map 3
The other three store types that carried all, or almost all, of the market basket
were natural foods stores, discount grocers, and convenience stores without gas. Like
superstores, natural food stores are completely missing from the West End and East
Downtown. Both of these areas do feature discount grocers, however the food and
service at these outlets is of a lower quality
13
. Convenience stores are abundant in the
West End and East Downtown (see map 4), but come with another set of problems.
13
Shaffer, Amanda The Persistence of LA’s Grocery Gap 2002 Center for Food and Justice Urban and
Environmental Policy Institute; Occidental College
5
Table 2
Food Availability at different types of stores
Store Type Percentage of Market Basket Items Carried
(%)
Supermarket
100
Convenience With Gas
58.3
Convenience Without Gas
100
Health Food
100
Pharmacy/Drugstore
25
General Stores
25
Discount Grocers
91.6
Superstore
100
Map 4
Convenience stores charge higher prices for food than any of the other store types,
aside from the hyper-expensive natural foods stores. This is important because for many
people living the West End and East Downtown convenience stores are the only
accessible type of food retailer. Because of this, residents are forced to do a great deal of
6
their shopping at convenience stores, where the market basket costs roughly 50% more
than at the supermarket (see table 3). Discount grocers are the store type that appears to
have the lowest price, however this figure is misleading. At the discount grocery stores
surveyed, researchers found only 11 of the 12 market basket items, and so the market
basket price is lower because there is an item missing and its price is not accounted for.
Table 3
Market Basket Prices at Stores with Good Food Availability
Store Type Market Basket Price ($)
Supermarket
16.09
Convenience Without Gas
23.89
Health Food Stores
40.05
Discount Grocers
15.07
Superstores
20.24
How’s the food?
Another problem is food quality. As previously mentioned, the discount grocers
sprinkled throughout the West End and East Downtown carry inferior goods and offer an
inferior shopping experience. They are messy, disorganized and have long, slow lines at
the cash register. However, the discount grocers are not the only store type offering a
second rate shopping experience to grocery buyers in the West End and East Downtown.
Even first tier national chains sell lower quality goods at their low income outlets. These
quotes from residents of the West End and East Downtown illustrate the poor quality of
the food sold by chain stores located within their neighborhoods.
At the Portland (West End) farmers’ market we asked an anonymous shopper who
lived in the neighborhood,
“Do you eat more fruits and vegetables because of the market?”
And she responded, “Yeah, cause it’s available…it’s hard to find good fresh produce at
the store…I bought iceberg lettuce at Kroger and it looks good, and then when I cut it
open it’s not good inside, it’s all brown and wilted”.
The situation is much the same in East Downtown, as reported by a Community Farm
Alliance (CFA) member who lives in Shelby Park
“The Second Street store (Kroger) caters to a lot of elderly African American people, and
that meat is not grade one. You can tell because if you put it in the ice box overnight, it
stinks! These people don’t have a choice, they can’t get out”.
These statements are representative of what people living in the West End and
East Downtown experience when shopping at their local supermarkets. Considering that
these supermarkets are the best shopping options within the two areas, the poor quality of
meat and produce that they carry attests to the difficulty of finding good food in the West
End and East Downtown.
We also conducted a small pilot survey to gauge attitudes that residents of the
West End and East Downtown held about food access and came up with similar results.
When asked if their neighborhood food store has a wide range of fresh produce 66% of
respondents disagreed. When asked how they felt about the statement, “when I visit a
7
store on the other side of town I am struck by how clean the store is and how attractive
the fruits and vegetables are” 60% strongly agreed
14
.
What else is there to eat? Fast food
While the West End and East Downtown lack supermarkets and other sources of
affordable, healthy foods, these areas have more than their share of fast food restaurants.
Fast Food chains do little to fill the healthy food gap created by the lack of supermarkets.
They provide unhealthy foods, high in saturated fat
15
and are more of a risk to community
nutrition than an asset.
Harmful fast food restaurants abound in the West End and East Downtown. Map
5 shows Broadway Street, a main (clogged) artery stretching from East Downtown
through West End. This 2.8 mile stretch features 24 fast food restaurants, meaning that
on average one never has to walk much more than 1/10 of a mile to find a cholesterol
packed hamburger or its equivalent on Broadway. Along this stretch there are 2 Long
John Silver’s restaurants, 3 McDonald’s restaurants, 2 Indi’s Fried Chicken restaurants, 2
Rally’s hamburger restaurants and 2 taco bell restaurants in addition to numerous other
fast food chains including but not limited to Pizza Hut, KFC, White Castle and Wendy’s.
Map5
14
Hot Seat Survey, Stacy Brooks, September 2005 Healthy Foods Local Farms Conference, Community
Farm Alliance
15
Ebbeling, Cara B.; Pawlak, Dorota B.; Ludwig, David S. Childhood Obesity: public-health crisis,
common sense cure August 10, 2002 The Lancet Vol. 360
8
Along with high priced convenience stores, these fast food restaurants are the
only accessible food seller to many residents of West Louisville and East Downtown.
Vehicle access: Getting to the food store
If residents of West End and East Downtown could simply get into a vehicle and
drive to their preferred food store, the lack of high quality, affordable foods in their
neighborhoods would not be a problem, unfortunately many of them cannot. The high
price of gas notwithstanding, many poor people in West Louisville and East Downtown
do not have access to a vehicle.
Map 6
Residents of the West End and East Downtown have far less access to vehicles
than residents of any other part of Jefferson County. The percentage of households
without access to a single vehicle varies by neighborhood in the West End and East
Downtown, but is high throughout. In the least impacted parts of the West End, 17% of
households do not have access to a vehicle, in the most impacted places in East
9
Downtown that number is over 70%
16
. In the rest of Jefferson County percentages of
households without vehicle access are rarely over 10% and often below 5%. Map 6
shows how the West End and East Downtown have much higher concentrations of
households without vehicle access than any other part of Louisville/Jefferson County.
Table 4
17
Comparing Percentage of Households without Vehicle Access
Area Households Without Vehicle Access (%)
Jefferson County
12.94
West End
28.38
East Downtown
50.93
Within the West End and East Downtown, residents of traditionally underserved
populations are likely to have even less vehicle access than others. The traditionally
underserved include low-income mothers, non-English speakers, disabled people, the
elderly and people of color. In the West End, members of these groups are twice as
likely as others to not have access to a vehicle
18
.
Table 5
19
Vehicle Access for Members of Traditionally Underserved Populations by Region of
Louisville
West
Louisville (%)
Central
Louisville (%)
East Louisville
(%)
South
Louisville (%)
Percentage
without vehicle
access
49.1 50.0 11.1 18.8
These problems combine to create food insecurity
For many residents of the West End and East Downtown it is hard to get good,
healthy food at reasonable prices. There are not enough food stores in their communities
and the food that is available is usually either low in quality, high in price or both. To
make matters worse, many people living in the West End and East Downtown do not
have access to vehicles, so they cannot drive to one of the few adequate food stores on
their side of town, or to another part of Louisville where there are better food buying
options (See map 7, below).
16
2000 Census Summary File 4 (SF4) HCT32
17
2000 Census Summary File 4 (SF4) HCT32
18
Kentuckiana Regional Transportation Agency (KIPDA) KIPDA Household Travel Survey: Traditionally
Underserved Populations Table 5-25
19
(Ibid)
10
Map 7
The above map shows all of the supermarkets and superstores in Louisville with
circles of ½ mile radii drawn around them. As stated earlier, our research shows that
supermarkets and superstores are currently the two best places to shop because they offer
the best combination of affordability, availability and quality. ½ mile is considered a
reasonable walking distance for a trip on foot to buy groceries, so the areas within the
small circles show the parts of Louisville where residents have walking access to an
acceptable food retailer. This map shows that across Louisville, the bulk of addresses are
not within such areas. In most of Louisville, however, the vast majority of residents have
access to vehicles, so they can easily drive to the food store of their choice if they do not
live within walking distance. This is not at all the case in West Louisville or East
Downtown, where huge portions of the population do not live within walking distance of
a good food seller and also do not have access to a vehicle.
For people living in this situation, the main food buying options are either to shop
locally and get inferior goods or to buy fast food. These are two unacceptable options.
Low income people cannot and should not have to pay more for lower quality groceries
than higher income people on the other side of town. People in the West End and East
Downtown deserve a variety of healthy food options, but they do not have them. West
Enders and East Downtowners can choose where they want to buy their cholesterol
packed fast food hamburgers from or from which store they want to buy second rate food
products, but many do not have the option to buy quality food at a reasonable price.
