Jerry Shannon

When are food deserts? Integrating time into research on food accessibility.

The food desert concept is used as a means for defining regions as having inadequate spatial and socioeconomic access to vendors selling nutritious foods. This primarily aggregate-level and static method for understanding the food environment is commonly used by researchers and policy makers seeking to improve health outcomes of those affected by reduced access. However, recent research findings have brought the association between living in a food desert and adverse health outcomes into question. In this viewpoint, we put forward the idea that the food desert concept, and food accessibility research more generally, should be expanded to include a temporal component, and note potential avenues for future research.

Characteristics of Older Georgians Receiving Older Americans Act Nutrition Program Services and Other Home- and Community-Based Services: Findings from the Georgia Aging Information Management System (GA AIMS).

This descriptive study examined characteristics of older Georgians receiving Older Americans Act Nutrition Program Services and other home- and community-based services (HCBS) using state aging administrative data (N = 31,341, mean age: 76.6 ± 9.2 y, 71.2% female, 52.3% White). Home-delivered meals (HDM) was used most frequently. The characteristics of older Georgian HCBS participants varied by the type and number of HCBS received. Those receiving HDM and other in-home and caregiving services were more likely to show poorer sociodemographic, economic, and functional characteristics, and food insecurity. Those receiving multiple HCBS were most vulnerable, but showed lower level of food insecurity than those receiving single HCBS, suggesting potential combined benefits of receiving multiple programs. This study underscores the importance of documenting dynamic needs for HCBS, especially HDM, among vulnerable older adults as part of standard administrative process to identify those at high risk of institutionalization, optimize HCBS delivery and coordination, and maximize HCBS benefits.

The Suburbanization of Food Insecurity: An Analysis of Projected Trends in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area

Although general patterns of food insecurity in the United States are known, few studies have attempted to estimate small area food security or account for ongoing socioeconomic changes. Here we address these issues by producing small area estimates of food insecurity in the Atlanta metropolitan area using two methodologies: fixed effects modeling and demographic metabolism. In both cases, we use county-level data from the Current Population Survey to determine the association between food insecurity and demographic predictors. These associations are then applied to tract-level data from the 2009 to 2013 American Community Survey and projected data for 2020 to create small area estimates of food insecurity. We find broad consensus between our two methods. For both time periods, food insecurity is highest in southern sections of the city of Atlanta and its neighboring suburbs. Projections to 2020, however, show that food insecurity rates are projected to increase in outer-ring suburbs east and west of the city while decreasing in the urban core. These results highlight the need to further adapt antihunger efforts for often sprawling suburban communities, where poverty rates are increasing but spatial mismatch combined with poor transit access might hinder access to food assistance.

The mobility of food retailers: How proximity to SNAP authorized food retailers changed in Atlanta during the Great Recession

Retailer mobility, defined as the shifting geographic patterns of retail locations over time, is a significant but understudied factor shaping neighborhood food environments. Our research addresses this gap by analyzing changes in proximity to SNAP authorized chain retailers in the Atlanta urban area using yearly data from 2008 to 2013. We identify six demographically similar geographic clusters of census tracts in our study area based on race and economic variables. We use these clusters in exploratory data analysis to identify how proximity to the twenty largest retail food chains changed during this period. We then use fixed effects models to assess how changing store proximity is associated with race, income, participation in SNAP, and population density. Our results show clear differences in geographic distribution between store categories, but also notable variation within each category. Increasing SNAP enrollment predicted decreased distances to almost all small retailers but increased distances to many large retailers. Our chain-focused analysis underscores the responsiveness of small retailers to changes in neighborhood SNAP participation and the value of tracking chain expansion and contraction in markets across time. Better understanding of retailer mobility and the forces that drive it can be a productive avenue for future research.

Athletes’ perceptions of within-field variability on natural turfgrass sports fields

Natural turfgrass sports field properties exhibit within-field variations due to foot traffic from play, field construction, management, and weather. Little is known about the influences these variations may have on athletes’ perceptions of field playability and injury risk. Information regarding athletes’ perceptions of within-field variability could be fundamental for identifying key surface properties important to athletes, which may also be useful for the progression and implementation of Precision Turfgrass Management on sports fields. A case study using mixed methods was conducted on a recreational-level turfgrass sports field to better understand athletes’ perceptions of within-field variability. Geo-referenced normalized difference vegetation index, surface hardness, and turfgrass shear strength data were obtained to create hot spot maps for identification of significant within-field variations. Walking interviews were conducted in situ with 25 male and female collegiate Club Sports rugby and ultimate frisbee athletes to develop knowledge about athletes’ perceptions of within-field variability. Field data, hot spot maps, and walking interview responses were triangulated to explore, compare, and validate findings. Athletes’ perceptions of within-field variability generally corresponded with measured surface properties. Athletes perceived within-field variations of turfgrass coverage and surface evenness to be most important. They expressed awareness of potential influences the variations could have, but not all athletes made behavior changes. Those who reported changing did so with regard to athletic maneuvers and/or strategy, primarily for safety or context of play. Spatial maps of surface properties that athletes identified could be used for Precision Turfgrass Management to potentially improve perceptions by mitigating within-field variability.

SNAP benefit levels and enrollment rates by race and place: evidence from Georgia, 2007–2013

ABSTRACT The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) decreases poverty and food insecurity for millions of Americans. Yet not all eligible households participate, and disparities in participation exist by household size, race, ethnicity, and place. We examine the county-level associations between maximum benefit levels and SNAP enrollment by household size, race, ethnicity, and metropolitan status from 2007 to 2013 in the state of Georgia. National county-level data on participation in SNAP by racial or ethnic group are not available, but Georgia features substantial variation by race and ethnicity as well as metropolitan status at the county level that make it well suited for our analysis. Maximum SNAP benefit levels were associated with increases in county-level SNAP enrollment across the board but especially for single-person households, Hispanics, and rural Whites. These findings have implications for future changes to SNAP benefits.

Opening GIScience: A process-based approach

ABSTRACT Many scholars have demonstrated growing interest in GIScience in recent years, including use of open data portals, shared code and options for open access publication. These practices have made both research and data more transparent and accessible for a broad audience. This research may be open only in a limited sense for populations without expertise in the technology and methods undergirding these data. Based on two case studies using RStudio’s Shiny web platform, we argue that a process-based approach focusing on how analysis is opened throughout the research process provides a supplementary way to define and reflect upon public facing geographic research. Reflecting upon decisions we made at key points in each case study project, we identify four key tensions inherent to work in open GIScience: standardized vs. flexible tools, expert vs. community-led design, single vs. multiple audiences and established vs. emerging metrics.

Geographic Disparities in Availability of Opioid Use Disorder Treatment for Medicaid Enrollees

OBJECTIVE To examine county-level geographic variation in treatment admissions among opioid treatment programs (OTPs) that accept Medicaid in the continental United States. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Data come from the 2012 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services. STUDY DESIGN/DATA COLLECTION We used local measures of spatial autocorrelation (LISA) analysis to identify (1) clusters of counties with higher and lower than average rates of opioid use disorders and (2) clusters of counties with higher and lower than average treatment admissions among OTPs that accept Medicaid, adjusting for county population size. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Our results reveal several clusters of counties with higher than average rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) and lower than average treatment admissions among OTPs that accept Medicaid. These clusters are highly concentrated in the Southeast region of the country and include Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. CONCLUSIONS Medicaid enrollees in areas in the Southeast have the largest gaps between county-level OUD rates and estimated county-level capacity for treatment, as measured by county-level total treatment admissions among OTPs that accept Medicaid. Policy makers should consider strategies to increase the availability of OTPs with the capacity to serve Medicaid enrollees.

From the Ground Up: Community Gardens in New York City and the Politics of Spatial Transformation

Few places contain as diverse and numerous an array of community gardens as New York City. Many of these gardens trace their histories back to 1970s policy allowing residents to redevelop vacant lots. With New York’s subsequent economic resurgence, especially during the Guiliani mayoral term in the 1990s, the city mounted an effort to reclaim these spaces for the development of new housing. This mobilized a variety of actors to defend the gardens, including neighborhood residents, several well-known New Yorkers (most notably Bette Midler), and nongovernmental groups including Green Guerillas, the Trust for Public Land, and the New York City Community Garden Coalition. What kind of politics and political subjects did these struggles engender? How has the production of garden spaces differed from or contested the forces of commercial development that have shaped New York over the last two decades? From the Ground Up, written by Efrat Eizenberg of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, focuses squarely on these questions, drawing on both extensive conversations with community gardeners and observations of garden spaces to theorize the role these gardens play within the spatial production of the largest U.S. city. Eizenberg draws heavily on the work of Henri Lefebvre to argue that New York’s gardens are a uniquely antihegemonic space, an “actually existing commons” (p. 103) that produces diverse and communally minded citizens. Eizenberg is not the first to interrogate the relationship between garden spaces and their urban context. Lawson’s (2005) City Bountiful provided a detailed history of urban gardening from the late nineteenth century onward, noting how programs such as the Victory Gardens were designed to improve citizens’ self-sufficiency in times of economic hardship. Others have focused on gardens in New York City and elsewhere to understand how efforts to create and defend these spaces redefine citizenship, reshape scalar politics, or even reaffirm neoliberal ideals. From the Ground Up vigorously defends the political potential of community gardens. In contrast to the neoliberal efforts to privatize city lots for upscale development, Eizenberg sees community gardens as resisting the urge to commodify space. They instead provide space for the cultivation of communal identities, as well as practices of celebration and creativity rooted in gardeners’ collective labor. In this sense, New York’s gardens disrupt the production of urban space under capitalism and provide space for the growth of both commons and commoners in New York’s neighborhoods.