Food deserts, food mirages, and gentrification in Toronto
Master of Environmental Studies graduate Patrycia Menko studied food gentrification in Toronto’s low-equity areas.
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A neighbourhood’s stores and restaurants can significantly influence the health and lifespan of its residents. This is due to the area’s retail food environment, which affects how convenient and affordable it is to access nutritious food. Food deserts, low-income areas where nutritious food sources are scarce or absent, greatly increase avoidable dietary risk factors. Food mirages, where healthy food retailers are available but are not economically accessible, are equally risky and have become prevalent with urban gentrification. Food gentrification, a subset of gentrification research that studies the relationship between food, access, and community change, is an area of emerging interest for Planning professionals.
Patrycia Menko, a recent Master of Environmental Studies graduate from the School of Planning, completed her undergraduate degree in geography and was looking for a graduate program that would expand her knowledge of health planning. She chose the School of Planning after speaking with alumni and learning about the program’s work-integrated learning opportunities. Under the supervision of Dr. Liea Minaker, Menko researched retail food environments, food gentrification, and neighbourhood-level intersectionality in Toronto.
In a recently published article, Menko identified food deserts and food mirages in Toronto and the cross-sectional links between these areas and gentrification, broken down by dissemination area.
Menko identified and mapped low-equity dissemination areas in Toronto using variables such as household income, unemployment rate and education. Food retailers within these areas were classified as either affordable or not, and if they provided nutritious food options. This allowed Menko to classify dissemination areas as food deserts and food mirages. Areas that had been gentrified were identified using several known quantitative measurements.
Results showed that 14% of all Toronto dissemination areas are food deserts or food mirages. These areas comprise 45% of all low-equity areas of Toronto, and about 19% of Toronto’s total population. Areas that had gentrified were 14.5 times more likely to be a food desert, and 2.5 times more likely to be a food mirage.
These results show that, like other Canadian urban areas, most Torontonians do not live in unfavourable retail food environments. To decrease the food deserts and food mirages that are present, Planners could use zoning by-laws to attract supermarkets while protecting the cost of nearby residential units. Pilot projects that give tax benefits to lower-cost retailers, like ethnic grocers, could also rapidly diversify the retail food landscape. These initiatives are most effective if implemented early in the gentrification process.
I’d encourage planners to get creative, engage residents directly, and utilize their powers to implement interventions quickly.
Menko also stresses the importance of making changes in collaboration with key stakeholders. “Exchanging ideas and information with other city planners and community organizations can be vital to the success of any project. I’d encourage planners to get creative, engage residents directly, and utilize their powers to implement interventions quickly.â€
After graduation, Menko worked as a Health Planning Facilitator in Peel Region, where she used her food environment Planning background to assess retail food and commercial land use policies to support the development of healthy built environments. She now works as a Senior Subdivision Officer at the City of Darebin, Australia.
The research, , authored by Menko and others, was published in Health and Place.
