What is the problem?

It is no secret that poverty often contributes to poor diet. The CDC article “Healthy Food Environments: Improving Access to Healthier Food” notes that “low-income and minority communities often lack convenient places that offer affordable healthier foods,” and as a result, “When healthy foods are not available, people may settle for foods that are higher in calories and lower in nutritional value.” A 2021 Food Revolution Network article titled “Food Inequality: How Poor Nutrition Affects Health, Wealth, & Opportunity (And What We Can Do About It!)” by Ocean Robbins notes that “Not everyone has the knowledge, time, or energy to prepare healthy food. And not everyone has the money to afford healthy food.”

However, this problem goes both ways: poor dieting often contributes to poverty as well. The aforementioned CDC article notes that every year, “chronic diseases account for 70% of all deaths in the United States. Poor diets lead to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.” These illnesses require extensive medical care, which carries incredibly high costs in the US. As Robbins notes, “poor nutrition undermines health, and then poor health can also contribute to poverty.” This perpetuates existing wealth discrepancies, keeping those unable to afford healthy means “stuck in a cycle of poverty and disease.”

What do we propose?

Access to internet and computers is at an all time high. According to the Pew Research Center’s “Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet,” in the US in 2021, 93% of adults used the internet—90% in rural areas, 95% in urban, and 94% suburban. With this in mind, web-assisted guides to healthy eating would be powerful tools in helping people limit the impact of unhealthy dieting on income and poverty. We propose the development of a website and accompanying web app specifically designed to assist people with finding healthy ingredients near them and cooking healthy meals with them.

This app would search local grocery stores and markets to help users find the best ingredients at affordable prices near them. Once users have access to these ingredients, the app would also suggest recipes for them, tailored to these nearby items, and help users plan out their meals and create shopping lists in a way that allows them to balance cost and health. The goal is to allow users to avoid eating out at fast food vendors, or buying unhealthy processed foods at the grocery store solely based on their ease and perceived price difference, and be able to plan and craft meals designed with health in mind ahead of time, allowing for an easier cooking experience, and do so in a way that doesn’t break the bank.

Team:

• Eric Schneider
• Indi Seagoe
• Patrick Iacob
• Arjun Subramanian