Exploring the Existence of, and Delineating Possible Food Deserts in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)

Food deserts are areas that lack, or have limited, supply of affordable healthy food. This MRP explores the existence of, and delineates, possible food deserts in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) under two scenarios: using 1) mainstream discount supermarkets, and 2) including both mainstream discount supermarkets and ethnic supermarkets as the sources of affordable healthy food. Circular buffers are created around supermarkets to delimit trade areas of supermarkets, and K-means clustering analysis is performed to identify socially-deprived neighbourhoods. Socially-deprived areas that fall beyond the trade area of supermarkets are considered as food deserts. Food deserts are mostly found in Brampton, the north-western and the south-eastern parts of the City of Toronto. This study reveals that the GTA does have potential food deserts and the study r results show that the inclusion of ethnic supermarkets has improved the access to affordable healthy food and reduces food deserts.