Combating Food Deserts

We’re using data to build an oasis. Not having access to nutritious, affordable food increases the likelihood of chronic diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, stroke or liver disease. Duval County has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the state at 20% of all adults.

Smart North Florida, the University of Florida’s Association for Information Systems, and the University of North Florida’s Hunger Network partnered together to analyze food deserts and food distribution in Duval County. By aggregating and overlaying multiple data points, the UNF Hunger Network has better tools to understand food distribution assets in Duval County’s primary areas of need.

The data includes age and health indicators, income, mobility access and pantry locations. You can create custom maps incorporating various data layers and download datasets.