A new report says the number of people living in food deserts has decreased in Chicago. But hundreds of thousands of families still don’t have access to healthy food.

In the past five years, there’s been more awareness around food deserts. Those are areas where grocery stores are scarce and that can lead to long-term health problems for residents.

Mari Gallagher has put out a new report. She helped popularized the term in 2006.

“The Chicago food desert has declined in population almost 40 percent and this is huge but the key point, too, is we still have a long way to go,” Gallagher said.

Gallagher said some big-name grocery stores have come into communities. Yet the food desert problem tends to lie in African-American neighborhoods on the South and West Sides.

Gallagher said one area that can be improved is in the food stamp program. She said many fringe grocery stores accept food stamps but lack healthy options. And the federal government has lax oversight.

Below are stores that take food stamps. They are within a half-mile radius of Growing Home, an urban agriculture business in Englewood. Many of these are considered fringe stores.