Closing the food access gap in rural Mississippi: Evaluation of the Grocery Online Ordering Distribution Service program using an assets-based framework

Rural Mississippi faces severe health challenges, ranking lowest among all U.S. states in health out­comes and highest in diet-related chronic diseases. The state’s rural communities in particular struggle with fruit and vegetable consumption, largely due to limited access to full-service grocery stores and the high cost and perishability of fresh produce. To address these challenges, community members in Sunflower County, Mississippi, developed and im­plemented the Grocery Online Ordering Distribu­tion Service (GOODS), an innovative food access program. A process evaluation of GOODS demonstrated that creative solutions to rural food access barriers can increase convenience for resi­dents while reducing grocery shopping time and costs.