The U-S Department of Agriculture has awarded South Dakota State with a nearly $4 million grant to study issues of food access.
It may sound odd given that South Dakota is a big agricultural state....but a lot of people in our state have problem finding and then getting...healthy types of food.
Two of the biggest problems in the united states right now are people eating too much food....and people who don't have enough food.
"A lot of people think they are at odds...I say they have the same root cause....and that's lack of access to good healthy food." Kathleen Merrigan is Deputy Secretary of the U-S Ag Department and she says this nearly $4 million set aside for SDSU will be used to closely examine food deserts...areas of the country where people live but food is scarce...especially quality food."We know from our national data that some people are buying their food at corner stores, convenience stores, liquor markets, something on the interstate. They're paying more money for lesser quality food."
It is a problem for the elderly who live on fixed incomes.
It is a problem for those in rural areas, where the nearest food store can be miles away.
And it is a problem on South Dakota's reservations, where both poverty and a lack of resources hit the population hard.
"We will leverage it as fast and as furiously as we can to really make a difference in people's lives." Barry Dunn is the Dean of SDSU's Ag Department and says the food access research will directly involve people who live this every day. "The solutions will come from the people themselves and we will assist them."
SDSU will spend the next couple of months deciding which communities to focus on for their studies and then begin their research in earnest....to help those communities change their lives around.
