LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- About 44,000 people in Louisville struggle to get access to healthy foods, according to new research on food insecurity. The new study, named 'Ending Food Insecurity: It Will Take Us All,' was conducted by the Lift a Life Foundation and the Community Foundation of Louisville. Researchers spent time looking into which parts of town are labeled 'food deserts,' to inspire community discussion on how to end the struggle it is for thousands of people to venture far away to a grocery store outside of their neighborhood to buy nutritious foods. 

• A new study says 44,000 people in Louisville live in an area that's designated a food desert, and 120,000 Louisvillians are food insecure. 
• A 'food desert' is defined by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), and mapped by the federal agency. They are areas considered 'low access' to food, where residents must travel more than a mile to get to a grocery store. 
• According to the study, the neighborhoods in Louisville with the highest percent of people without a car, have zero major full-service grocery stores. 

"We have families who have transportation but they still have to go several miles, 20 miles or more- 10 to 20 miles or more- just to get healthy food," says Ramona Lindsey, who lives in a food desert in the Shively area. 

Lindsey also works for the Community Foundation of Louisville, which helped with the food insecurity study. She says the problem of living in a food desert is not only a concern for neighbors' physical health, but can also be draining mentally. 

"You begin to worry 'am- are the people that live in my community not worthy of having adequate, healthy food?'" Lindsey says. 

Monique Quarterman headed up the research project, as the Hunger Innovation Fellow. 

"So, Kentucky has one of the highest rates of diabetes, one of the higher rates of hypertension, obesity... but also Kentucky is one of the highest state in the nation in the number of adults that eat less than one serving of fresh fruits and vegetables per day," she says. "When you think about that full picture of people not having access to grocery stores where they can get fresh produce and things that keep them living a healthy and active life, and you compare it to some of the health disparities, you really get to see that this is a really big problem." 

To read more on the study, click here. To see an interactive map of the USDA's food desert designations in Kentucky and across the country, click here.