Food Security Initiative adds crucial data to help combat food insecurity in community

ALBANY, Ga. – Albany City Commissioners addressed what they’re calling a health crisis: dire food insecurity in the community. The “Food Security Initiative” is a collaborative project that’s been collecting data throughout the year to map out and rate the city’s current grocery stores and pin point red zones in the community that are in need of a grocery store.

The organization found that only nine out of Albany’s 120 supermarkets had the highest level of food access. Seven of those nine offer the largest variety of fruit, vegetables and meat.

None of those stores are located in Ward 6, Albany’s south side. 

“This is a huge issue, a crisis level at this point, given that Dougherty County is in the top 1% of food deserts in the nation so it’s going to take a lot of people doing a lot of hard work all together and using the data to inform the work that we do,” says Sherrell Byrd, Food Justice Coalition representative.

You can find all of the food security initiative’s data and maps here.