Blue Design: Fighting Food Deserts With Rainwater Harvesting

Abstract

Food deserts are an increasing issue in the United States. Low-income areas within cities have little economic incentives for grocery stores, leaving the residence with little to no access to healthy foods. Schools within these food deserts have the ability to provide members of the low-income communities with these healthy foods. These foods can be sustainably grown with rainwater harvesting design and implementation. Tucson Arizona and its food desert locations were the focus area of this study. After generating the data on how much rainwater each school was able to collect in a given year, the amount of potential food produced was calculated for each school. The data and report provide the foundation for schools to build their rainwater harvesting and community farming programs upon. The results suggest that every school has the potential to at least supplement their daily diets with healthy foods grown on campus and watered with a sustainable source.