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The abandonment of inner cities by supermarkets and their reluctance to invest in urban areas have forced people from underrepresented populations to purchase foods and snacks from unattractive bodegas. Although there are existing strategies that suggest some increase in access to supermarkets and grocery stores, inner city access to healthy affordable foods remains an issue. While many public health researchers have explored the efficacy of corner store interventions, mobile food truck vendors have received very little attention in the public health literature. However, food truck vendors have interesting features, which makes them a viable venue to increase nutritious food access. We analyze four key components of the food truck vending regulations in five of the most populous cities to demonstrate how local government can use mobile food truck vendors to increase the accessibility of nutritious foods, specifically in poor, urban communities. Diabetes and obesity-related illnesses and deaths in these communities is not just a matter of personal health but a growing public health concern. Hence, it is not enough to propose novel health policies to regulate food truck vendors and hope that we will be able to address the lack of nutritious foods in vulnerable communities - particularly those urban, low-income neighborhoods described in our introduction. This exploratory study shows that more work is needed dealing with the use of mobile food vendors' municipality regulations to improve access to nutritious foods.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past 15 years, there has been a growing focus on reducing the obesity epidemic in America (Story, et ah, 2008). In particular, there is a demand for greater access to nutritious foods and more limitations on energy-dense foods with low nutritional value. There is evidence that the residents of poor neighborhoods will consume healthy foods: the greater the availability of nutritious foods in local bodegas, the greater the intake of those foods (Cheadle, et al., 2008). While there are existing strategies that demonstrate some increase in access to supermarkets and grocery stores, increased access to healthy affordable foods at the ubiquitous bodegas remains an issue (Kaufman, 1999). There are a variety of factors that have historically been barriers to providing nutritious foods to low-income communities. First, the general trend of supermarkets to abandon these communities and their reluctance to...