By Kirstin Q. Siemering, DrPH, RD
According to PolicyLink, 23 million Americans living in low-income communities don’t have access to a supermarket. In round figures, this translates to the combined populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Antonio, and San Diego.
Without supermarkets, people tend to have limited options when it comes to feeding themselves and their families. The corner stores and fast food outlets that often predominate in low-income areas offer an abundance of relatively inexpensive foods that are high in calories and low in nutrients—but little if any fresh fruit, vegetables, and other nutritious staples. Not surprisingly, people living in these communities suffer disproportionately high rates of diet-related chronic—and preventable—diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
But this hasn’t always been the case. These “food deserts” have developed in response to various economic and social forces affecting demographic shifts over the past 30-40 years.
This transformation dates back to the 1970s and ’80s, when the landscape of food availability in densely populated, largely poor city centers began to shift. Grocery stores expanded their square footage, consolidated into chains, and many closed their urban doors, taking jobs with them as they headed to the suburbs to build bigger stores more cheaply and expand their profits by serving more affluent clients. Food deserts also have sprung up in rural areas over the last decades. Hanna, Wyoming (population 800) lost its only grocery store just months ago; the nearest grocery store is now 80 miles away.
So what to do?
There’s a movement afoot to turn things around, store by store, community by community. One example is the effort is being led by Pennsylvania’s Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI). In only four years—and with just $30 million in state seed funding—this innovative program has brought 83 supermarkets to underserved areas throughout the state and created 5,000 local jobs for local residents.
The program works by providing gap financing to prospective grocers who would like to open or renovate stores in underserved areas but have special needs that can’t be met through conventional financing. For example, for his downtown Philadelphia Shop-Rite store, grocer Jeff Brown needed additional funds for training and security. Funding from the FFFI helped him put what was needed into place while keeping his prices reasonable. Brown’s now profitable store caters to the ethnic and cultural food preferences of his clientele, including a pork-free meat room for Muslim customers.
The project brings together The Food Trust, The Reinvestment Fund, and the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition in a public-private partnership that has won national acclaim, including a Smart Growth Award from the Environmental Protection Agency and recognition from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Most recently, in his 2011 budget, President Obama has requested $400 million to create a national Food Financing Initiative.
With luck and favorable fiscal and political winds the national FFFI will become an important driving force to enhance the food and employment landscape in underserved communities across the country.
Kirstin Siemering DrPH, RD is a researcher with the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.
Comments