Junk food marketing proliferates in low-income communities, on billboards, store signs, targeted television, and radio. The same communities tend to have limited access to affordable healthy food, and—no surprise—higher obesity rates. This confluence of factors, along with recent studies showing African-American and Hispanic populations are more genetically disposed to obesity and diabetes than others, has driven grassroots strategies to raise awareness and change food choice behavior. The first step is often “food assessment,”

with people investigating their own neighborhoods for advertising saturation and lack of fresh food available.

Internet Assignment Find out what happened in Los Angeles with Community Action on Food Environments (CAFÉ). What do you think of community engagement strategies as a means of combating the effects of junk food marketing?