Over 20% of the Gateway neighborhood is enrolled in SNAP and receives food stamps. Almost 15% of residents are food insecure and almost 25% of children are food insecure which leads to a domino effect in other areas like education and health.
Gateway finds itself in the dead center of a food desert. It is almost its own desert within a desert. To get healthy food requires at least a mile of walking. It also finds itself surrounded by fast food restaurants and other unhealthy alternatives like corner stores and convenient stores which are higher in price than grocery stores and worse for you. Gateway is a “low car” neighborhood meaning that accessing these outside healthy and affordable options is not available to many residents. Because of this, diabetes, CVD, and other food related, chronic illness is very common. Additionally, unhealthy habits like binge drinking and smoking are common in Gateway. Almost 15% of residents reported eating less than 1 serving of fruits and vegetables each day. |