Food insecurity may be a function of living in a sparsely populated area that cannot support a supermarket or a problem of zoning, where commercial land uses are not allowed.

You can investigate which of these may be the cause by looking at your city’s zoning map. You should be able to find a map of your city’s zoning districts using a Google search. Go to www.google.com, and type in “[name of your city] zoning map.” One of the first few results should lead you to a color-coded map that shows which land uses are allowed in certain areas.

If there are only residential, not commercial uses allowed nearby, the next step would be to talk to your city councilmember about re-zoning for commercial uses nearby so that a supermarket would be a legal use.

If there are commercial uses permitted nearby, but still no supermarket, there simply may not be enough of a customer base to support one. Look at the permitted uses in the nearby residential zoning districts. If they only allow for single family detached buildings, consider asking the city to allow for slightly higher density, such as multifamily units including duplexes, triplexes, or quadplexes. These types of buildings would not likely have a significant effect on the character of the neighborhood, but could allow more people to live there, which could support more nearby businesses such as supermarkets.