Food And Nutrition Security in Greater Compton Area
While food deserts are literally nonexistent in the "better" areas of Los Angeles County, the under-served areas (Inglewood, Compton, Bell, East Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles) have plenty of "food deserts" and "food swamps."
Located in the heart of the LA County, the area between Downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach, centered around Compton is considered both a "food desert" and a "food swamp."
The presence of "food swamp" (fast food chains) is an equally strong predictor of obesity rates as the absence of full-service grocery stores.
What sets the greater Compton region apart from other urban food deserts/swamps is its size. Compton itself is home to 97,612 population and 6,674 registered businesses.
While Compton is 10 square miles, the greater Compton area spans 40 square miles and over 500,000 people live and work in the area.
Healthy food in the region is hard to find, quality is sub-standard and price for good food is high. Residents of the greater Compton region and work-related commuters to the area are paying with their health for cheap and easily available sub-par food. This becomes evident from the data provided by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health.
The populations with the highest rates of obesity and Type II diabetes in the region are non-white minorities:
Latinos diagnosed with Type II diabetes are 13.5 percent, and blacks are 12 percent.
People diagnosed with obesity are nearly 40 percent throughout the region.
What can be done to improve the Food and Nutrition situation in the region?
We believe that the food quality in the under-served greater Compton region can be changed sustainably by this one core objective:
Saving lives by eating better.
In order to enhance the health status of the residents in the under-served regions of Southern California, we will introduce a new prepared meals program. The program will focus on affordable, nutritious, freshly prepared low-carb heat-n-eat meals delivered to the residents on a weekly basis.