Louisiana’s Healthy Food Retail Act
Origin: Louisiana State Legislature
Bill Name/Number: Senate Bill No. 299, Act No. 252
Link: Click here
Summary: Passed in 2009, this act provides a financing program to stimulate investment in healthy food retail
outlets in underserved areas of Louisiana.
Talking Points & Important Information:
• Millions of Americans live in the middle of a food desert. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food
deserts as a “urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food”
which “[i]nstead of supermarkets and grocery stores […] have no food access or are served only by fast food
restaurants and convenience stores that offer few healthy, affordable food options.”
• The USDA estimates that 24.5 million Americans live in areas of food insecurity, and that more than half of them
– 13.5 million – are low-income.
• Food insecurity can impact health and have particular relevance to our nation’s growing trends of racial
health disparities. According to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health, people living in low-income
neighborhoods, as well as predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, have less access to
supermarkets than those who reside in middle-income or predominantly white neighborhoods. In fact, fast food
options are disproportionately saturated in these low-come, Black, and Hispanic neighborhoods.
• For more information on heathier food retail initiatives from across the country, read this report from the Centers
for Disease Control.
2015 POLICY BOOK
STATE
LEVEL
PAGE 47