Deserted: Food insecurity hits rural Georgians hard

Eden Hodges

Dinner time rolled around, and I found myself in a familiar bind: trying to make something out of nothing. Living in a rural Georgia community, this is the norm. The pantry is usually stocked with the basics, but getting fresh, nutritious ingredients is another story. Tonight’s goal was a simple three-course meal, but in a food desert like mine, even that can be challenging.

In Georgia, nearly 2 million people live in areas where access to affordable and healthy food is limited, according to the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center. They say rural communities get it the worst, with grocery stores often miles away and shelves packed with ultra-processed, high-calorie foods.

Feeding America reports that 44-million Americans are food insecure, and in rural areas are more likely to lack access to enough food. These families rely on convenience stores or fast-food chains, neither of which offers the nutrition needed.

“We have some months as many 2400 families that we help provide meals for,” said Sheila Stewart-Leach, the executive director of the Statesboro Food Bank.

Stewart-Leach says food insecurity can be caused by a number of things, like rent hikes, food stamp delays or fostering families. Food insecurity is not just about having something to eat, but about whether that food is nourishing and sustainable.

“It is incredibly important that children get the protein that they need to develop their brain power,” said Stewart-Leach.

Feeding America reports that 1 in 5 children face hunger every day. Just this year, Bulloch County schools began offering free lunch in 12 out of their 15 schools, meaning average household income levels are below a certain threshold.

For my dinner in the desert, I started with a cowboy caviar appetizer. The Dollar General is the closest place that I can buy food, and it’s 3 miles away. I grabbed cans of corn, beans and tomatoes, along with some tortilla chips and fake lime juice.

There isn’t a fresh thing in the entire store, aside from some wilted flower arrangements every now and then. Beans, I thought were a good idea to add fiber to the meal.

For the main course, I’m forced to pick through the frozen section. Most often I grab what’s easiest, a frozen pizza or Banquet meal. Most of the meat options have to be doctored up in some form, and a lot of nights, I’m just not up to the task. I grabbed chicken tenders and frozen green beans.

Frozen vegetables or canned ones are the only options. An expert for the USDA told CNN, frozen vegetables are just as nutritious as the regular ones, if not more – since they’re picked closer to when they’re ripe than the way fresh food is picked.

Lastly, for dessert, I grabbed canned fruit in the hopes of making a nice southern-style ambrosia. Unfortunately I forgot the coconut but it worked just the same. It’s hard to make a dessert healthy any way you do it, but even as I searched desperately for the fruit cans hidden on the bottem shelf, it’s like the cookies and candies were calling to me. It can be really hard to make the right choices in the Dollar General.

My dinner wasn’t perfect, just a reminder of the ongoing struggles in rural communities like mine. I'm just lucky I have transportation. Food deserts aren’t just an inconvenience—they’re a crisis that affects the health and well-being of millions.