Mapping the Cost of a Balanced Diet, as a Function of Travel Time and Food Price

Abstract

We present a new method for analyzing spatial variation in the cost of a balanced diet, as an alternative to food desert classification. Our specific hypothesis is that the cost of a balanced diet varies according to where one lives, as a function of travel and food item costs. We collected price data for the USDA Thrifty Food Plan from approximately 30 percent of food retail outlets of various kinds in the three Gulf Coast counties of Mississippi, and these prices were extrapolated to the remaining stores. Transportation costs were calculated for both driving by automobile and the combination of walking and public transportation by bus, accounting for both the shoppers' time and the cost of automobile mileage. We developed a "traveling purchaser problem" algorithm to estimate the lowest-cost combination of travel and food costs for purchasing all items in the Thrifty Food Plan for each residential parcel in the study area, and mapped the resulting costs and examined their variation. Estimated costs varied more because of transportation costs than food prices, and ranged from US$109 to US$215 for automobile travel and from Results of this analysis demonstrate that the cost of acquiring a balanced diet varies considerably and more or less continuously. Food is not equally cheap for all; it depends on where one lives. For any given location, an estimate of the cost of a balanced diet, including both food price and transportation, is more useful than a classification as food desert or not in understanding access issues and needs. Furthermore, policy alternatives that are intended to influence access should be evaluated based on how much they influence costs, and for whom, depending on where people live.

Explaining Racial Inequality in Food Security in Columbus, Ohio: A Blinder–Oaxaca Decomposition Analysis

“…When examining such racial disparities, it is critical to consider the historical impact of policy in driving the disparities. Columbus ranks 78 out of the 318 most racially segregated cities in the U.S. [ 63 ]. The racial segregation of American cities is a cumulative result of policies enacted throughout the twentieth century.…”

Measuring Food Expenditure Poverty in SNAP Populations: Some Extensions with an Application to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

“…There is now a rather substantial body of literature on the role that time plays in nutrition-related outcomes, ranging from lower diet quality being associated with lower time in food preparation (e.g., Jabs and Devine 2006;Monsiavais, Aggarwal, and Drewnowski 2014), to mealtime planning and food insecurity (Fiese et al 2016) and healthy child weight (Fiese, Hammons, and Grigsby-Toussaint 2012). Marshall and Pires (2017) and Hilbert et al (2016) find that travel costs, which are directly proportional to time, are more important in determining grocery choices and diet quality than food prices. Landfield, Fraumeni, and Vojtech (2009) argue that a timeadjusted food price index helps better explain the increase in convenience food consumption than just the unadjusted price index.…”

A Mixed-methods Examination of the Geospatial and Sociodemographic Context of a Direct-to-Consumer Food System Innovation

“…Low-income individuals have cited cost, time, transportation, habit, and food preferences as potential barriers to using DTC operations for food purchasing (Leone et al, 2012;McGuirt, Pitts, Seguin, Bentley, DeMarco, & Ammerman, 2018;McGuirt, Ward, Elliott, Bullock, & Pitts, 2014;Racine, Smith Vaughn, & Laditka, 2010). Hilbert, Evans-Cowley,Reece, Rogers, Ake, and Hoy (2014) found that rural lowincome populations may be particularly vulnerable to food-access issues because of transportation costs associated with pursuing a healthy diet, and that policy efforts should always consider placespecific factors given variation in costs.…”