Price, UT
Healthy food access, Built environment | 2025
Uncovered barriers to healthy food access in a rural community to inform targeted interventions.
Access to healthy food options is important for building health and well-being. In Price, Utah, a small rural community, residents with low incomes and Latino residents are concentrated in a few neighborhoods with limited grocery store options, inadequate transportation, and walkability challenges. Get Healthy Utah, a nonprofit organization that works to make Utah a healthier place to live, worked with local organizations to generate data that reflect the experiences of Price residents and uncovered the root causes of inequities in healthy food access, including transportation and the built environment.
Get Healthy Utah collected their initial findings on food access through a community survey and walk audits codesigned and conducted along with Latinos in Action, a school-based leadership program made up of teachers and students. Before undertaking the walk audit, participants received training. They then observed and documented food choices and walkability along their selected routes to assess the availability, accessibility, and quality of healthy food options.
After data collection, Get Healthy Utah held an event for participants, sharing key findings and gathering additional input. Insights included the lack of awareness of existing food-related resources, the need for Spanish-language community outreach to expand access, limited culturally relevant food options, transportation barriers, and a lack of nearby stores. Informed by this process, Get Healthy Utah created a guide for conducting healthy food assessments that they have shared with other organizations. Other partners supporting this work included the Southeast Utah Health Department, which provided public health expertise and local data; the Utah State University Extension, which supported community engagement and education on nutrition; and the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SERDA), which contributed regional planning insights and made connections to local resources.
The project culminated in a final report shared with community members, partners, and decisionmakers, including the Price City mayor, the community director for planning and zoning, and a partner from the SERDA. Decisionmakers noted that the data will help show that healthy food access is sustainable and in communities’ best interest. The report recommends targeted interventions to expand culturally relevant food options, improve community food resources, strengthen communication and outreach, improve transportation and accessibility, and increase youth and family programming.
Following their conversation with local policymakers, Get Healthy Utah expects the report will inform built environment improvements, food access initiatives, community garden coordination, economic and community development, and more. The recommendations and strategies identified by the project will also support Price City’s work as a part of the Healthy Utah Community designation program. Get Healthy Utah will use the resources and capacity built through this work to support communities throughout Utah working to advance healthy food access.