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When we analyze the perspective on house-less-ness, we can see that many of the so-called homeless population are surrounded by food deserts. Food deserts will cause nutrition deficiencies if the individuals such as the houseless, which are surrounded by fast food restaurants, convenient stores, and are regularly consuming those companies products due to the lack of finance. Many of these companies provide food that has different ingredients that are detrimental to the brain health of people. These products are GMO and grown in the lab, which have unknown long term effects in the future. Food insecurity is not the same as food deserts. Food insecurity refers to a lack or a limited amount of food, while food deserts refers to the " specific geographic areas where residents’ access to affordable, healthier food options are generally restricted or even nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores/supermarkets/farmers markets "(canr.com). It's important to know that if there is ever a purpose to solving the houseless or "homeless" problem, there should be a way of empowering the individual's mental health, so that they may get back on their feet. Health is one of the biggest factors of causing people to not work, due to the fact that they can't function due to x-amount of reason, or are in Jeopardy of spreading their illness. Covid-19 has been one the primary examples of job loss in the United states causing many evictions, job layoffs, and more. On top of all of that, we have food deserts that still remain as the majority source of food to acquire for the houseless. On the story map website for Portland, Oregon Food deserts are locations where "neighborhoods don't have adequate access to grocery stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, or any of the locations where food is purchasable."(StoryMaps). Fast food is designed to be cheaper compared to grocery food, simply due to the abundance of resources for each of the companies demands. The houseless is surrounded with markets indicated in the companies in the picture below, such as McDonald's, seven-eleven, and many more that have very little nutritional value. There is a direct correlation between mental health, and the food consumption according to the conversation "it is now known that many mental health conditions are caused by inflammation in the brain which ultimately causes our brain cells to die. This inflammatory response starts in our gut and is associated with a lack of nutrients from our food such as magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, probiotics, vitamins and minerals that are all essential for the optimum functioning of our bodies."(The conversation). Overall, we need to analyze a different source of food alternatives when trying to help the houseless out in the efforts of getting them back on their feet.
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