The World Health Organization (WHO) defines social determinants of health in the following way: “The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age.” Furthermore, “these circumstances are shaped by the distribution of money, power, and resources at global, national and local levels.” These social circumstances create societal stratification and are responsible for health inequities among different groups of people based on social and economic class, gender, and ethnicity. Social determinants of health are an underlying cause of today’s major societal health dilemmas including obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and depression. Moreover, complex interactions and feedback loops exist among the social determinants of health. For example, poor health or lack of education can impact employment opportunities which in turn constrain income. Low income reduces access to healthcare and nutritious food and increases hardship. Hardship causes stress which in turn promotes unhealthy coping mechanisms such as substance abuse and overeating unhealthy foods.
As reported by the United States Department of Agriculture, consumer choices about food spending and diet are likely to be influenced by the accessibility and affordability of food retailers—travel time to shopping, availability of healthy foods, and food prices. Some people and places, especially those with low income, may face greater barriers to accessing healthy and affordable food retailers, which may negatively affect diet and food security.
Baltimore City Health Department’s mission is to serve Baltimore by promoting health and advocating for every individual’s well-being to achieve health equity for all residents.
The Virtual Supermarket Program is an innovative approach to addressing Healthy Food Priority Areas. It uses online grocery ordering and delivery to bring food to neighborhoods with low vehicle ownership and inadequate access to healthy foods.
It enables residents to order groceries at their local library senior/disabled housing, or from a designated site.
It is the mission of the Virtual Supermarket Program to work with communities and grocery stores to facilitate access to healthy foods. The staff and Neighbor Food Advocates of Virtual Supermarket teach Baltimore residents online grocery shopping and community organizing skills to encourage ownership of their local food environments as well as healthy eating.
Neighborhood Food Advocates are trained community members whose mission is to generate community-driven approaches to increase food access.
The Baltimore City Health Department addresses the health disparities that are driven by gaps in food access as a key collaborator in the Baltimore Food Policy Initiative (BFPI) and through innovative, community-based Baltimarket programming. BFPI is an inter-governmental collaboration with the Department of Planning, Baltimore Office of Sustainability, Baltimore Development Corporation, and the Baltimore City Health Department that draws on the expertise of each to use food as a lens to examine and address the systems that perpetuate the food environment disparities. The goal of BFPI is to increase access to healthy and affordable foods in Baltimore City through a holistic and comprehensive food systems approach.
The Department of Planning and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future collaborate to examine the Baltimore food environment through research, analysis, and mapping in order to inform BFPI’s work.
Baltimore City’s Food Environment: 2018 Report
