Salton City: A Food Desert

SALTON CITY, Calif.- Imperial County helps feed the nation, with thousands of acres of farmland. Yet, in Salton City, a growing issue of food insecurity looms.

It's a striking contrast. Imperial County produces billions of dollars in crops every year, supplying a major share of the nation's winter vegetables.

But in Salton City, residents are living in a food desert, where access to fresh food is limited or out of reach. It is a small desert community in the Northern most part of Imperial County, and sits by the Salton Sea.

What used to be a bustling vacation destination is now a shell of it's former glory, with abandoned homes, trailers, and hardly and commerce.

Residents have only three options for shopping for food: Family Dollar, Dollar General, and one local market, with the nearest supermarket nearly 40 miles away.

That's where the Imperial Valley Food Bank and volunteers step in, bringing food directly to residents through weekly distribution drops.

"We try to access every remote area in the Imperial Valley because we know they don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables in their communities and it's just harder to access food for them," Carrie Augusta, IV Food Bank Distributions Manager told KYMA.

Each week, volunteers set up in the community, providing fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and non-perishable items to families in need.

The Volunteers say with the rising prices of food and gas, locals are grateful for the weekly food drops.

"Here in Salon Sea there's not really any stores where they can get these produce or stuff like that so they have to make a trip, so us coming out here really helps them out," Ariel Vallejo, a member of the Food Bank operation team told KYMA.

Every year the need becomes greater as the economic vulnerability of the residents grows.

Driven by the ecological collapse of the Salton Sea and dwindling agriculture runoff, the marginalized communities in the area are impacted by lack of substinence fishing, and lack of farmland, with the closest garden miles away.

Many also lack transportation.

"Out here we serve about 168 families. At the Slabs every month we serve about 150 families. Bombay Beach, we serve 48 families. And Palo Verde we serve about 40 families as well. So those rural communities, they still need food," Augusta explained.

And while crops continue to grow just miles away, the reality in Salton City hasn't changed. Access remains the biggest barrier.