Beyond the Box: Food Access Realities in Rural Arizona
by Reilly Caldwell, Food Studies Coordinator, Adam State University
Keywords: rural; food access; food boxes; Northern Arizona; community
Mohave County, Arizona, is a fascinating combination of people and places. The local environment is tough, and the people are tougher. I interviewed food box recipients living across the county to get their perspective on why the local food system was so limited, what it was like trying to navigate this limited food access, and what kinds of potential solutions they thought might alleviate some of these issues.
I was introduced to the people of Mohave County through an undergraduate research class in conjunction with Northern Arizona University and St. Mary’s Food Bank which I facilitated for four semesters. During my first semester working in this program, I was introduced to Yucca, Arizona, a town that left me with many questions and later provided me with many answers. Yucca ended up being one of three towns where I conducted interviews for my thesis, the other two being Bullhead City and Peach Springs. All three food box distributions I went to are in zip codes categorized as food deserts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This means that the people living in those areas are both low-income and low-access, living a relatively far distance away from a grocery store.
In my review of the available literature, I found that food box recipients have not been studied frequently in the United States, possibly because food boxes are not clearly defined. I found that many food box recipients do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or they only qualify for a small amount of aid that does not provide enough support for them to adequately feed themselves. Because they often do not utilize SNAP, it is harder to quantify their socioeconomic status and track them down without conducting research at distribution sites.
The food box system was originally designed for emergencies, for people to use temporarily when they were in between jobs or when there was a hard economic year, so food banks focus more on the number of people receiving boxes rather than how frequently or for how long an individual utilizes the system. However, I found in my research that this is no longer the case and that the situations food box recipients are in are much more complicated.
When I conducted my interviews, these communities were still recovering from the economic impact of COVID-19. They were now struggling with the far-reaching impact of gas price inflation on travel and food costs. Moreover, this county has unique transportation challenges relative to other areas of the country. There were very limited public transport options, so most people were traveling in personal vehicles – except the roads were consistently in poor condition, and many people lived down dirt streets. This wear and tear on cars impacted people’s ability to get to food sources and to have the money to afford both maintaining their car and purchasing food. This issue is made even worse by how far some food box recipients live from various sources, driving up to 90 minutes for food. Finances were across the board, a major issue. Some had work but were only making minimum wage, many people were retired and living off limited social security, and several were struggling with high healthcare costs.
One of the biggest takeaways from my thesis was that there were significant levels of unmet needs in these communities. Food banks are contending with a stigma that is limiting the number of people who feel comfortable receiving the boxes. Another issue was people not being able to utilize everything in the food boxes because they did not have consistent water or electricity access, they were houseless, they did not know what some of the fruits and vegetables were, the food spoiled quickly, and/or because they did not have the resources to store the food properly.
These challenges meant that people were struggling to get the food they needed. And even if they were receiving food boxes; still, almost every recipient I spoke with knew someone who could have benefitted from receiving food boxes but was not coming to the distributions for one reason or another.
Based on my conversations with the food box recipients, one of the most effective solutions to food insecurity is community. Through building a community around the food box distributions, more people could access food – volunteers and neighbors often drove those without transportation to the distributions or delivered food boxes to their homes.
When people felt comfortable enough to chat with others while waiting in line, they shared knowledge about food storage, saving money, and how to use the produce they were receiving in different ways.
In lieu of an increase in the minimum wage or increased monetary support from the government, building a community around food box distributions can make a real difference in the lives of those living in the flux that is rural Arizona and potentially other locations, too.
— Reilly Caldwell
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