The Importance of Ethnic Food Stores in Identifying Food Deserts: A Case Study of Huntsville, Alabama

The paper examines the importance of including specialty and ethnic food stores in defining and identifying food deserts in a multi-ethnic suburban neighborhood. The paper uses an in-store food availability survey and GIS techniques to test the hypothesis that the availability of healthy and affordable food options will be considerably under-reported when not accounting for ethnic and specialty food stores in food desert analysis. Although a relatively large portion of the study area remains a food desert, ethnic and specialty food stores significantly offset the lack of supermarkets and grocery stores in providing healthy and affordable food options.