Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Barriers And Coping Strategies Among Women In A Food Desert, Renee Holt

WWU Graduate School Collection

This qualitative research focused on how women living in a neighborhood identified as a “food desert” experience food insecurity, and to learn what coping strategies are used in response. The closure of the full-size Albertsons grocery store centrally located in the Birchwood neighborhood on Northwest Avenue led to the identification of the area as a food desert by the USDA in 2016. Food deserts, neighborhoods with limited options for buying fresh food, are created through socio-economic and spatial inequalities that impact food access. In food deserts, fresh food access may be severely limited, which leads communities to organize in order …