Despite the countless initiatives, services and even new grocery stores appearing in Gainesville, food insecurity is back on the rise as of late 2025, with local food shelters such as Deeper Purpose Community Food Ministries reporting an increase from 10 to 40 phone calls per day directed toward food assistance.
Efforts to combat this issue are becoming more commonplace, such as the $100,000 stipend from Alachua County to the Bread of the Mighty Food Bank and UF’s increased emphasis on food banks and recovery services. But if UF and the city are doing so much to combat the scarcity, then why are more families, workers and students still losing access to food?
The answer is simple: Food accessibility is linked to not just the food existing within city limits, but also to the financial and temporal constraints separating people from the food. In cities like Gainesville, food accessibility depends less on whether a store actually exists and more on whether people can reach it…