‘Food deserts’ to be council priority

Olathe, Overland Park and Edgerton “food deserts” will be top priorities of Johnson County’s new Food Policy Council once it gets up and running, said Lougene Marsh, director of the county’s Department of Health and Environment.

The new advisory group, which will be composed of volunteers interested in the distribution of healthy food, was recently created by the County Commission with the charge of studying the food system and advising the commission on action to enhance healthy living.

The group is still in the formative stages, and no members have yet been appointed by Commission Chairman Ed Eilert. Marsh said she hoped to have 10 to 20 members who have an interest in food distribution. That list could include growers, anti-hunger organizations or retail food sellers, for example.

The three cities will get a close look because of previous work done by Marsh’s department. In 2011, the health department developed a five-year plan of increasing availability of healthy food as part of its community health assessment. The next year, the department received a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation and formed the Access to Healthy Food Coalition to study the issue further.

Health officials are particularly concerned with data on food insecurity and obesity, Marsh said. Some 61 percent of Johnson Countians are overweight or obese, which can result in related health problems. There are also more than 65,000 people who are considered “food insecure” and may worry about having enough to eat, she said.

The coalition spent four years studying the county food system and looking for ways to increase access to healthy food. Olathe, Overland Park and Edgerton were later identified as having “food deserts,” which are areas where people often can’t get to a grocery store or market that sells healthy food without a car.

It’s still too early to say what might be done to help people in those areas, since the council has not yet met, Marsh said. But eventually, the council could make recommendations to the commission for new initiatives.

The council’s work is not expected to take any extra budgeting from the county, and any projects the group comes up with would likely be accompanied by an outside funding source such as a grant, she said.

Food policy councils have sprouted up in cities and counties throughout the country in the past few years, as officials have sought a way to engage government policy and nonprofit efforts to encourage healthy living. Marsh said they are increasingly common in Kansas. Douglas County has such a group, as does the Kansas City metro area.

Despite the problem areas identified in three cities, the food policy council will begin its work with good reviews for health in the county. Johnson County is the top-ranked county in Kansas for health outcomes by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. That ranking looks at such things as smoking, teen births, pollution, poverty and violent crime.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 3:57 PM with the headline "‘Food deserts’ to be council priority."