Dr. Joseph Sharkey, PhD, MPH, RD, is associate professor of social and behavioral health at Texas A&M School of Rural Public Health and  Principal Investigator for the Brazos Valley Food Environment Project (BVFEP), which used ground-truthing to identify and map all food stores and food service places in six rural counties (~4,400 mi²).¹

Two Texas A&M nutrition graduate students joined the BVFEP to conduct research projects for their theses. Jennifer Creel, MS, RD (now a student in P.A. school) developed an interest in the availability of healthy options, especially for individuals who have to rely on away-from-home food for many of their meals. Jennifer and Dr. Sharkey developed an observational survey to collect data on-site from all fast food opportunities in the six rural counties – traditional fast food restaurants (44 percent of fast food opportunities in rural study area) and non-traditional fast food venues of convenience stores, supermarkets and grocery stores. The survey captured menu items (entrées, side dishes, beverages and deserts), identification of nutritional information, and preparation methods. Importantly, Jennifer’s study found that the majority of opportunities for rural residents to purchase fast-food items came from store formats other than traditional fast food restaurants. Non-traditional fast food outlets were spatially more accessible to rural neighborhoods.

Brenda Bustillos, MS, RD (and now dietitian with the U.S. Army) documented the availability of healthy food alternatives in traditional, convenience and non-traditional (dollar stores and mass merchandisers) food stores in two of the rural counties. Brenda and Dr. Sharkey developed a survey that she administered in each of the food stores to capture availability, variety, and lowest price for healthy food alternatives (e.g., low-fat, lean, whole wheat). Food categories included fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, fats and grains. For fruit and vegetables, data were collected for fresh, canned and frozen. Over the last several years, the retail food environment has undergone changes that influence the type of stores that market food products. Brenda found that non-traditional food stores needed to be included in order to fully understand what food items were available to rural families. Dr. Sharkey’s team has followed this work with similar assessments in six other counties.

¹ Sharkey J, Horel S. Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation and Minority Composition Are Associated with Better Potential Spatial Access to the Food Environment in a Large Rural Area. J Nutr 2008;138:620-627.