A food desert is a neighborhood without access to much, or any, healthy food. Living in a food desert frequently leads to residents with higher rates of obesity and diet-related due to their lack of access to affordable, healthy food options. 

Many of you have probably heard of Walk Score, the site designed to help residents understand and quantify the walkability of their current or future neighborhoods. Recently, Walk Score wrote about a new feature on their maps that allows them rank the best and worst large cities in the United States when it comes to food access. According their site, these rankings are based on the percentage of people in a city who can walk to a grocery store in five minutes. Leading the pack are New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington, DC; at the bottom of the list are Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Charlotte, and Tucson.

Want to know how  your city or county stacks up? If your community isn't on the website, you can request that your area be considered for analysis. One of the neat things about Walk Score's assessment of food deserts is that the data is open source. You can make sure your neighborhood's info is as up-to-date and accurate as possible, ensuring that your community's overall walk score is accurate. 

This feature seems particularly relevant to the local government management audience. As local leaders, you can also use this information to understand your residents’ need for access to healthy, affordable food, which will better equip you to develop policies, programs, and partnerships to serve those living in these areas and improve the overall health of your community. If you’re interested in learning more about how to improve your local food system, check out the resources in ICMA’s own Knowledge Network.