What’s for lunch? What did you have for breakfast? What are your plans for dinner?

All of these questions stem from one of the most basic human questions, namely, how will I nourish my body and sustain my life.

For most of us, answering these questions and finding proper nourishment comes with relative ease and simplicity. For many, however, answering those three fundamental questions with a nutritious or substantive response is a serious challenge.

No, I do not refer to people starving in an underdeveloped country. Rather, I’m talking about people right here in Dallas county who live day-to-day without access to the proper nutritive foods.

As SMU students, when we’re deciding how to nourish our bodies, we are graced with a number of options. Well-equipped grocery stores, health food stores, and healthy dining options abound. We literally live in an suburban oasis of health-conscious, nutritious abundance.

If you picked a paper up on campus, you could easily walk to at least three grocery stores and find a cornucopia of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, grains and breads. Our food community is one of exceptional abundance.

This is simply not the case for many of our Dallasite neighbors. Abundance, nutrition and healthy options do not permeate Dallas entirely. Residents in South and West Dallas especially face a lack of nutritious options. Between the two communities there is only one grocery store. Health food stores and, indeed, any healthy dining options do not exist.

These Dallasites, our neighbors, do not have access to the proper nutritive resources. The only options they’re given are unhealthy, quick fixes. These neighborhoods abound with fast food chains, convenience stores and unhealthy restaurants. Yet, they still must answer that same basic question of how to sustain their lives.

The answers they arrive at are along the lines of “Cheetos for breakfast,” “McDonalds for lunch” and “no dinner.” Of course, some community members do seek out healthy options. Yet, this often requires traveling longer distances, spending more time on purchasing foods and spending more money on foods.

Unlike the oasis of food choices available in our community, these Dallasites live in what’s called a “food desert” (no, not dessert). Technically, this is defined as a place with no grocery store or supermarket within a one mile radius. Almost all of West and South Dallas is considered to be in a food desert.

For most, having access to healthy food options is an essential component to quality of life. How can one sustain and nourish one’s body if there are no resources with which to do so? How can you adhere to the food pyramid and eat off the dollar menu? How can you receive essential vitamins and nutrients or control your cholesterol while dining in a convenient store? These are some of the challenges faced by those living in food deserts.

Indeed, this reality severely contrasts most of our experiences of access to food. It also seems to be another chapter in the lengthy history of resource segregation in Dallas.

On the level of a community, it also presents serious challenges to creating and developing both unity and empowerment. How can you take pride in your community when lack of food access condemns children to childhood obesity, adults to premature death and all groups to overall lack of health? Why would you trust or participate in government if the most basic of needs, namely nutrition, is not even met in your community? Undoubtedly, lack of food access affects more than just one’s nutrition. Its effects spill over into all elements of life.

Perhaps most importantly, however, are the questions of ethics and morality that surround this issue. Is unequal access to food just? Are the haves responsible to advocate for the have-nots? Who decides who deserves access to food?

If you are interested in exploring these and many other questions around food deserts and the food ethics, please join the Maguire Center’s Ethics Design Team for the Food Ethics Symposium. The event will be on April 14 and will include a Symposium presenting undergraduate research from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Atriums. There will also be a banquet from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom West.

Drew Konow is a senior religious studies, foreign languages and literatures major. He can be reached for comments or questions at [email protected].