Every state has food deserts. Many are found in cities, others in rural areas. In general, the USDA defines a food desert as an area with few or no grocery stores providing access to healthful food choices. That accounts for nearly one-third of everyone in big cities and 10% of the country’s rural population—more than 23 million people in all. Some states have responded by creating incentives to develop more supermarkets in food deserts. Pennsylvania has been a leader in providing incentives for supermarkets to locate in food deserts. The state established the Fresh Food Financing Incentive program in 2004, which partners with private organizations to provide one-time grants and loans for the startup of qualified food retail stores. The state committed $30 million in seed money to the fund: private investors provided an additional $145 million. By the time the project spent the last of its funds in 2010, the Incentive approved 93 projects providing 400,000 residents with better access to healthful food.
Source: Council of State Governments, 10/13, Food Deserts
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