While there’s much to celebrate in the gastronomic world of Tucson lately, there’s also a lot of work to do and that doesn’t just mean giving money to your new favorite restaurant. After all, many of those pioneering autonomous organizations that helped win the city of Tucson its recent acclaim grew from a genuine need from the community and a lack of state funding or interest. One of the biggest food-related social justice issues to plague the Old Pueblo still is that of food deserts.
While it may seem like the term “food desert” is pretty much a given here in Tucson, know that it actually means “geographically isolated areas where access to healthy, affordable foods … is limited or non-existent because of the absence of full-service grocery stores within easy travel distance,” and those can exist anywhere—regardless of natural climate.
