The Detroit Food Map Initiative has been the only entity consistently conducting survey assessments of Detroit’s neighborhood grocery landscape for availability, price, and quality of healthful foods. Data collected has been utilized by several Detroit organizations and agencies to influence policy. The completion of a third data collection (2017) in over 300 stores in the city and suburbs will allow for a robust analysis of trends in Detroit grocery and food markets as well as indicate food access improvements or gaps.
Date
2011 – Present
Client
Self-initiated
Grants
2021 MDHHS, Community Health and Nutrition
2021 USDA Community Food Projects, Great Grocer Project
2020 RWJF, Healthy Eating Research, Healthy Food Retail Case Study
2017 Green Grocer Project (DEGC), Grocery Store and Consumer Surveys
2015 National Science Foundation (NSF), Promoting a Healthier Urban Community: Prioritization of Risk Factors for the Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity
2015 Social Sciences Annual Institute (SSAI) and MCubed Diamond (U of M), A ‘big data’ approach to understanding neighborhood effects in chronic illness disparities
2014 Green Grocer Project (DEGC), Food Purchasing, Pathways, and Perceptions in Detroit
Conferences
2020 Michigan Good Food Summit
2019 Michigan Good Food Summit
2019 Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Annual Meeting
2018 American Public Health Association (APHA) 146th Annual Meeting
2018 Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) Annual Conference
2018 Society for Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Annual Meeting
2015 American Public Health Association (APHA) 143rd Annual Meeting
2014 American Public Health Association (APHA) 142nd Annual Meeting
2014 American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting
Media
Article Second Wave Media, January 2019
Audio Racist Sandwich podcast, June 2018
Article Anthropology News, July 2016
Article Planetizen, January 2016
Article Model D Media, November 2015
Article Model D Media, March 2015
Publications
Articles
2022 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Refining the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey (NEMS) for Healthy Community Stores: Adaptations to Capture Alternative Food Retailers and Align with Dietary Guidelines
2022, Nutrients, Assessing the Influence of Food Insecurity and Retail Environments as a Proxy for Structural Racism on the COVID-19 Pandemic in an Urban Setting
2021, Public Health Nutrition, Food insecurity in Detroit: Exploring the relationship between patient-reported food insecurity and proximity to healthful grocery stores
2021, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, ” Treat everybody right”: Examining foodways to improve food access
2020 Gastronomica, Independent Grocers, Vulnerable Residents, and Community Coalitions: We’re All Essential!
2018 FoodAntro, “Race, Food, and Rebellion: Detroit’s History and Conflicts over Food Access”
2015 Progressive Planning: State of Planning in Detroit, “Urban Agriculture in Detroit: It’s not a ‘Food Desert,’ it’s about Food Sovereignty”
2014 Detroit News, “Food desert a myth, but food security issues aren’t”
Academic
2021 Public Health Nutrition, Food insecurity in Detroit: Exploring the relationship between patient-reported food insecurity and proximity to healthful grocery stores
2018 Public Health Nutrition, Using social media to assess the consumer nutrition environment: comparing Yelp reviews with a direct observation audit instrument for grocery stores
2018 Public Health Nutrition, Flint Food Store Survey: combining spatial analysis with a modified Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in Stores (NEMS-S) to measure the community and consumer nutrition environments
2017 Food and Foodways, Critical Inquiry into Detroit’s Food Desert Metaphor
2017 Journal of Urban Health, Using Social Media to Identify Sources of Healthy Food in Urban Neighborhoods
Books
2021 A People’s Atlas of Detroit
2018 Neighborhoods and Health
Reports
2020 Detroit Food Metrics Report (with 2021 update)
2019 Detroit Food Metrics Report
2018 Detroit Food Metrics Report
2017 Detroit Food Metrics Report
Alex B. Hill 