MG was recently retained by Harvard and MIT to support the planning and execution of a public forum and present on Food Deserts and Food Balance. Planning and health professors at these highly esteemed institutions use MG studies as required class readings. “We were thrilled to have Mari participate in our 2009 spring seminar series entitled Towards a more equal […]
Public Reports
Most of our projects do not result in publicly accessible reports, but here are a few that we can share. Our written content, graphics and illustrations are copyrighted. If you would like to use our work in a way other than viewing or citing it, please inquire about licensing permission.In 2006, our firm released Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, a breakthrough study that identified over 600,000 Chicagoans who live in a Food Desert, a large geographic area with no or distant mainstream grocery stores. The report demonstrated statistically significant relationships between food access and diet-related disease and premature death. Three years later, has […]
Earlier this year, local gangs set an apartment fire to punish their rivals, killing a seven-year-old girl named Itzel and her pregnant mother by mistake instead. Roughly 30 public school children have died violently since the start of the school year. View this new map of locations of these deaths with our new “deck-stacked-against-you” indicator that shows Chicago tracts with […]
Our firm was retained by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to develop a Professional Opinion on a report entitled The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses: An interim-evaluation of one Chicago neighborhood’s experience by the Center for Urban Research and Learning of Loyola University Chicago (the Loyola report). The MG Opinion is organized into two key sections: 1) a […]
This is a must-read analysis for anyone interested in how to use neutral data, information, and statistical methods to prioritize government incentives, resources and energy. Learn how we worked with the City of Chicago to help commercial planners prioritize 6 key sites for grocery stores based on need, public health impact, market strategy, and other factors. In our past work […]
September is the month to showcase what you, your community, your school, your church, or your business are doing to promote solutions that improve food access, wellness, and quality of life. Read the full announcement along with other new MG downloads on how consumers tend to rely on the food stores to which they have the most access, even if […]
Type 2 diabetes (non-insulin dependent diabetes) affects more than 20 million U.S. residents and is the most common form of the disease. However, because diabetes exhibits few, if any, symptoms until its advanced stages, millions more are unaware that they are in danger of developing the disease. When blood glucose (sugar) levels are higher than normal, but not yet high […]
The reproduction of MG analysis into these 10 Community Storyboards © was made possible by the Kellogg Foundation, the Skillman Foundation, the University of Michigan School of Social Work, and the Good Neighborhoods Initiative. Do you live in a Food Desert? While the focus of these Storyboards is on Detroit, each provides concrete examples of what you and your own […]
This 46-page Professional Opinion quantifies the block-by-block food access impact that the proposed Wal-Mart would have if it opens at that site. It also quantifies the impact of nearby grocers that have recently opened or closed. Retail agglomeration and new neighborhood market frameworks and measures are introduced, such as the Snowball Index and Snowball Effect, which explain why retail attracts […]
The PowerPoint, maps, and tables address home mortgage burden, rent burden and foreclosures in Central Iowa and how employer assisted housing can help address the issue.
This PowerPoint was presented at the Illinois Legislative Latino Caucus Foundation’s Annual Summit.
This briefing examines food access for roughly 10,000 blocks in Central Louisville.
If you don’t have time to read the full Louisville report, view this one-page storyboard and map.
This briefing examines USDA Food Stamp retailers named as “medium grocer” or another label in the government data that are likely instead to be liquor stores. Full briefing available on November 9, 2007.
The Center for Economic Progress and Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group release Show Me the Money! The report is an assessment of the Center’s Financial Empowerment Project. Working closely with the North Side Community Federal Credit Union, the Project recruits local employers to participate in programs that help their lower wage workers achieve financial health and stability. We found that: […]
“This report ought to serve as a wake-up call, and my guess is that it will. It documents a serious problem clearly and forcefully. It is much harder now to avoid the conclusion that action to address it in Detroit warrants a high priority.” These are the opening words of Thomas Kingsley of the Urban Institute who wrote the foreword […]
Our robust data set and scientific tools make clear that we have a big public health problem on our hands. But what does science tell us about our ability to band together and reverse course, or to create something entirely new? Often, our response to public health and other socioeconomic problems is a new law or policy to steer resources […]
The program description details an event sponsored by LaSalle Bank and Detroit LISC to review the findings of Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Detroit by Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group.
Read how banks are advancing ITIN (Individual Tax Identification Numbers) mortgages to help undocumented Mexicans buy homes.
In 1923, long before the rise of McDonald’s golden arches, an advertisement for beef made this proclamation in the Bridgeport Telegraph: “Ninety percent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat.” The phrase you are what you eat actually dates back to the 17th century. Over time, science has repeatedly demonstrated that […]
Our Study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, included a robust, albeit self-reported, sample of height and weight from driver’s license records by Zip Code. Height and weight, included in those records, allows the calculation of body mass index (BMI), an accepted measure for obesity. The data are grouped into tertiles (thirds). The map shows […]
Premature death due to cancer and cardiovascular disease is also greater for African American, White, and Latino communities where there is greater imbalance of food choices. While these effects are not statistically significant, the pattern repeats itself in nearly every instance of analysis: as communities become more out-of-balance in terms of food choices, diet-related deaths and premature death increase.
In 1923, long before the rise of McDonald’s golden arches, an advertisement for beef made this proclamation in the Bridgeport Telegraph: “Ninety percent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat.” The phrase you are what you eat actually dates back to the 17th century. Over time, science has repeatedly demonstrated that […]
This storyboard includes tables of our recoding of USDA Food Stamp retailers for Metro Chicago.
There are 3 food deserts in Chicago comprising a half million residents and 203,369 households. But not everyone who lives in the food desert is poor. For example, of these 203,369 households: 63,355 or 31% have an annual income of $50,000 or more 29,561 or 14% have an annual income of $75,000 or more 14,194 or 7% have an annual […]
This is a baseline map that grocers and other market actors have found helpful.
This document outlines recommended steps for Chicago to improve food access. The Task Force was formed in response to Mari Gallagher’s work.