1. Food Access in Le Sueur, MN and Contributing Factors
Tyler Koonst
Background
Le Sueur, Minnesota is a rural town of just over 4000 people located between the Twin Cities and Mankato on Highway 169 in Le Sueur County. For the majority of health determinants, Le Sueur is quite representative of Minnesota as a whole. However, the grocery store access is below both the state and national average while simultaneously maintaining population rates with low food access at 1/10 the state rate.
This means that those most vulnerable to food insecurity have high access to supermarkets and large grocery stores even with a below average quantity of stores available to the population. This also holds especially true for the low income population, being 15 times lower than the state.
Greater access to healthier foods contributes to better overall health and can impact overall population health. This will not consider the financial cost of purchasing fresh produce, but the availability to do so.
The USDA calculates Low Access food areas as locations where the low income population does not have access to supermarkets within 1 mile of urban residents and 10 miles for rural residents. Grocery store availability does not include general merchandise centers that also sell food (i.e. Wal-Mart Supercenter or Super Target).
Figure 6. Overweight Adults
Figure 7. Obese Adults
Determinants of Health
By the USDA definition, low food access is only considered for low income areas. Le Sueur is at the state average for household income, individual income, and poverty rates. This means with the lower grocery availability, the low rates of low food access could be explained by more affordable housing being located within 1 mile of the grocery store (Figure 3). An anecdotal review of property values, as assessed for county taxes, and rental units within 1 mile of the grocery store supports this conclusion.
If the Low Income data point is removed (Figure 4) we see that Le Sueur is still a Low Access area, but is not considered a food desert as people are assumed to have the means to travel for grocery shopping. The USDA provides data on vehicle access, but is not used when considering access in the previous data points. Figure 5 identifies Le Sueur as a Low Vehicle access area where there are over 100 homes without a vehicle that do not live within ½ mile of a supermarket.
To address transportation availability within the city, there is a van service available for $1.50, each way, to and from anywhere in the city. This not only addresses food availability, but also transportation to the local clinic and hospital.
Despite outstanding food access metrics, Le Sueur has some of the highest obesity and overweight population percentages on both a state and national level (Figures 6 and 7). 79.3% of the population has a BMI over 25 and but fresh and healthy food access does not have as large of an effect as other determinants of health.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Conclusion
At first analysis of the food access data points, Le Sueur appeared to be an outstanding example of a community with fresh and healthy food options. Upon further examination however, it appears the data is affected by several factors not considered in the metrics. The population of Le Sueur is made of both rural and urban residents, which have different definitions of acceptable access. When income is not considered, the population has a more limited access overall. The decision to not consider supercenters is a mistake as they are growing in prevalence, especially in rural areas where consumers seek out one-stop-shopping.
The prevalence of obesity speaks to other factors of health, besides availability. Data was suppressed on the costs of fresh produce, fruit and vegetable consumption, and soda expenditures making further analysis of the utilization of grocery availability difficult. Overall, access is the first step to utilization and going forward better utilization of available resources can hopefully have an impact on the obesity rate and overall health.
Figure 4. Low Access but not Low Income
Figure 3. Low Access and Low Income
Figure 5. Low Vehicle Access
References