Food Deserts in Chicago

The Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights submits this report, "Food Deserts in Chicago," as part of its responsibility to examine and report on civil rights issues in Illinois under the jurisdiction of the Commission. The Committee has been monitoring the issue of health disparities in Chicago for several years and this report is the culmination of research, a briefing, numerous working group sessions, and, finally, a fact finding meeting on the issue in August 2010. The report was approved by a vote of 18 to 1. At the start of this project, it did not take long to realize that many Chicago neighborhoods are considered food deserts because of the difficulty residents of these areas have in accessing fresh, nutritious foods, in particular fruits and vegetables. Of note to this Committee is the fact that these food desert neighborhoods are almost exclusively in African American neighborhoods.