Eating healthy enough? Researchers want to know

Living in the nation’s breadbasket and surrounded by prolific farms, how could anyone in the Shawano area be lacking in food supplies?

That is one of the questions in a new research project being launched by local officials who hope to determine why portions of Shawano County and Menominee County are regarded as “food deserts.”

The federal government defines a food desert as a geographic region where poverty runs high and where people must travel significant distances to reach a full-service grocery store — one mile in the city or 10 miles in the country.

With such conditions present in western Shawano County and throughout most of Menominee County, researchers will examine food supplies, consumer shopping habits and other circumstances that could be creating barriers to healthy eating choices.

“There’s an opportunity to gather a lot of interesting information,” said Jamie Patton, agricultural agent for the University of Wisconsin-Extension in Shawano County.

The research project is being led by a coalition that also includes the Shawano County Planning and Development Department, and the Shawano-Menominee Counties Health Department.

The group has been awarded a $130,000 grant from the American Planning Association, a non-profit educational organization that distributed more than $2 million among 17 communities nationwide. The grants, in a program called Plan4Health, are aimed at combating chronic disease by promoting advancements in either nutritional eating or physical exercise.

Anna Ricklin, manager of planning and community health for the association, said she was impressed by the Shawano project’s potential for reaching native American tribes in trying to understand why food systems sometimes are inadequate.

“It’s a unique population be working with,” Ricklin said, adding that the Shawano grant proposal was “very strong.”

Other grants recipients are in Fort Worth, Texas; Sacramento, California; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Baltimore, Maryland; Providence, Rhode Island; and elsewhere.

To get the Shawano project started, researchers are first reaching out to potential partners to include representatives of the Menominee Indian Tribe, the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe and the Ho-Chunk tribe. The coalition also could include other government agencies, non-profit organizations, businesses and community members.

The group will spend several months examining what research exists already, and then digging deeper to understand what options exist for healthy eating and why so much of the region’s population is not exercising those options.

The questions could be as simple as why shoppers do not buy fresh fruits and vegetables, or as complex as how can area farmers reach the local market more readily with healthy food products. Also to be considered will be the roles played by grocery stores, farmers markets, food pantries and other outlets.

“We want to be able to do as much research as we can,” said Christa Hoffman, project manager in the county’s planning and development department.

The effort could include surveys within the general public to better understand consumer buying habits and other issues.

By next September, researchers hope to complete their work and present findings, along with public policy actions or other solutions to improve access to healthy foods for people throughout the region.

Said Patton: “I think there’s going to be some unique opportunities to serve the community.”