Food deserts are locations with low amounts of available healthy foods from grocery stores, often in low-income and/or high crime neighborhoods. People living in food deserts often don't have easy access to healthy food, which can cause malnutrition.
Good nutrition is important because our bodies rely on many different nutrients to live. If your body can't get enough nutrients, you may feel tired or worn out and you may become ill. According to the CDC, poor nutrition can lead to costly diseases like obesity, heart disease, and cancer.
Magnolia is primarily occupied by high-income suburban residential housing. As a side effect of this, because most people own cars and are able to drive to big-box stores like Fred Meyer and Costco and get gas in more affordable locations, there is no urgent need for grocery and convenience stores. Thus, very few of these have opened in the Magnolia area, with most of them being located either in the village/urban areas or the north/eastern region.
As mentioned above, Magnolia is primarily made up of housing for high-income individuals and families, typically with cars and funds for gas and more expensive groceries. Many residents of Magnolia will drive or commute outside of the neighborhood on a daily basis for work, shopping, and other activities. This significantly reduces the need for grocery stores, and thus, only two grocery stores operate in Magnolia, with both of them being located on high-traffic arterials in central regions of Magnolia. For the low-income residents who are unable to efficiently commute to Fred Meyer, Costco, or other stores, they would be considered a part of a food desert in Magnolia.
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While eliminating food deserts may seem like a tedious task, the theoretical solution is really quite simple: add more grocery stores to cover the majority of Magnolia. This would require adding 5 more grocery stores along the outer areas of Magnolia.
The ratio of grocery stores to convenience stores is 4:3, which would simplify to a proportion of 1.33.
The ratio of new grocery stores to current stores is 5:3, which would simplify to a proportion of 1.67.