Incentivizing Fresh Food Retail in Food Deserts: Lessons Learned from Pennsylvania and Maryland

Overview

The term “food desert” describes communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. In the United States, food deserts occur most typically in urban and rural low-income neighborhoods and are more prevalent in communities of color. This issue brief examines barriers to increasing healthy food retail in food deserts and the implementation of Fresh Food Financing Initiatives (FFFI) to overcome these barriers.