LibGuides: 8th Grade Design Thinking: Access to Healthy Foods

Facts about Access to Healthy Foods

Some areas have lots of grocery stores and access to cars or public transportation. Others have no grocery stores and limited transportation access.
Poor nutrition impacts children's growth and development.
Lack of healthy food can cause diet-related diseases like diabetes.
Traveling a far distance to a grocery store is time consuming especially for working people.

Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
This database contains the full content of many of the Gale's print publications about controversial issues, such as the Opposing Viewpoints series, Current Controversies, and more. It also includes articles from reference books, periodical articles and websites.

Key Article

‘Everyone here goes there’: Celebrated Save A Lot closing in Pagedale
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 29, 2021

Explora

Explora- High School Version This link opens in a new window
This new interface from Ebsco is designed specifically for the general research needs of high school students to provide a variety of appropriate magazine and newspaper articles, chapters from books, and videos on a wide selection of topics.

Key Videos

North St. Louis County nonprofit aims to open grocery store in food desert
Video on KSDK, January 25, 2022: Red Circle Nonprofit wants to offer healthier food options with a community-owned grocery store on New Halls Ferry Road.
Community farm in St. Louis County turns food desert into healthy food haven
Video on KSDK, July 19, 2020: Some neighborhoods have little access to healthy food which is especially worrisome during the pandemic. Seeds of Hope is trying to change that

Sample Keywords

Try combining some of these phrases in your search:

Low-income low-access community
Food deserts
Nutrition security
Food access
Food supply
Urban farming
Food security
Food insecurity
Food deserts and health
Food deserts and obesity
Food habits
Community gardens

How to use a database

Databases can be a great place to find all sorts of information. They contain several different source types - books, reference book articles, magazine and newspaper articles, video, audio, statistics, and even recommended websites.

When you use a database you will probably need to narrow down your search to find results that are relevant to your topic. Here are some limiting tips:

Limit by date of publication - you are researching a current issue, so you probably don't want any materials that are more than 5-8 years old.
Add search terms - the more terms in your search, the more focused your search will be. Leave out words like the, and, a, if, is, to, an and so. These terms will be omitted from your search anyway.
If you want to look up a particular topic or person of more than one word, use quotes to make the database do a phrase search. Ex. "John F. Kennedy", "Civil Rights Movement".
Limit by publication type or name (for example, look for articles from the New York Times).