What is Food Insecurity?

Like many communities across the country, St. Petersburg has a food problem. 

While many parts of town are literally teeming with grocery stores, St. Petersburg actually has 4 food deserts, defined by the USDA as “areas where people have limited access to a variety of healthy and affordable food”. [1]   According to the USDA’s Food Access Research Atlas, which tracks food deserts across the country, food deserts are often characterized by low-income levels, greater distances to healthy, affordable food, and limited vehicle availability. [2]  For people living in food deserts, that can mean making some unusual choices, relying at times on food sold at convenience stores and gas stations. 

Unfortunately, it doesn’t end there.  St. Petersburg also has a problem with food insecurity, another problem predating the Covid pandemic.  Food insecurity refers to families who “had difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members.” [3]  According to Feeding America, in 2018 (the last year for which data is available) 123, 860 people in Pinellas County were food insecure. [4]

The problem is that food insecurity is all too often met with junk calories.  Loading a community with processed calories from dollar stores and USDA food boxes only treats hunger. These junk calories are highly processed foods that can be warehoused for years but do not make a community healthier.  In fact, they create and exacerbate the chronic diseases of diabetes, cardiac disease and renal failure.  So while there may be some food, there isn’t a lot of nutrition, and that has big consequences for individual health and the health of the community.  

Nutrition insecurity is the real challenge we must face. The kinds of foods brought into a community matter greatly.  It is not just about filling the belly.  It’s about healthy food that meets nutritional needs, nourishes the body, and fosters well-being.  That means easy, affordable, convenient access to fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes and whole grains that form the basis of a healthy diet. 

Recently, our City Council unanimously passed ordinance 448-H in its first reading which allows St. Petersburg residents to sell what they grow in their home gardens. This will not only will put more nutrition into our city but provide many new economic opportunities for families in financial trouble due to COVID-19. Additionally, the ordinance reduced permit fees for hosting sales, allowed garden-related structures to be built and allowed residents to sell their produce on vacant non-residential property. All great things for gardeners and eaters, alike.  While this importance legislation is an important step in improving access to local, healthy food, we know it will not solve our city’s nutrition insecurity problems.  There is more work to be done. 


There will be many opportunities to write to our policy makers, speak in public forums, provide education about the issue to organizations and assist in local efforts.  We hope that you will join us in this endeavor. 

  1. USDA, Economic Research Service, Economic Research Report Number 140, August 2012, Characteristics and Influential Factors of Food Deserts
  2. USDA, Economic Research Service, Food Access Research Atlas
  3. USDA, Economic Research Service
  4. Feeding Tampa Bay