“Food Deserts” and What Cities Are Doing About Them
Wal-Mart in Chicago and a Moratorium on Fast-food Joints in LA
I’ve been complaining about the lack of grocery stores in minority and poor neighborhoods for a while. Apparently such inequity becomes news only when someone comes up with a catchy name for it: food deserts. Food deserts happen when people do not have access to a variety of foods and food vendors. No grocery stores, no produce or farmers markets, and hardly any sit-down restaurants. The lack of car, time, and money can force people to subsist on ubiquitous convenience marts and fast-food restaurants that populate (and some say exploit) poorer neighborhoods. Here’s what some people are doing about it.
In Los Angeles:
To curb obesity and encourage healthier eating, LA city officials unanimously voted in favor a year-long moratorium on fast-food restaurant construction in South Los Angeles, an area known mostly for the low economic status of its inhabitants. Councilwoman Jan Perry, initiator of the legislation, says it’s not about banning fast-food (as it has often been distorted in the media), it is about giving grocery stores and slow-food restaurants an unfettered window of time to develop in the neighborhood. The goal is not to punish Taco Bell and KFC, but rather to bring healthier and more diverse foods options into the neighborhood. Wedged between two major highways, 73% of the restaurants in the South Los Angeles area are fast-food oriented (compared to 42% in West LA).
Research has shown that people will change eating habits when different foods are offered, but cost is a key factor in poor communities, said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.
“Cheap, unhealthy food and lack of access to healthy food is a recipe for obesity,” Brownell said. “Diets improve when healthy food establishments enter these neighborhoods.”
Because cost is such an important factor when it comes to food choices, Perry is focusing much of her energy on bringing in high-volume grocery stores and farmers markets. Thanks to the moratorium and other efforts by Councilwoman Perry, Tesca, a grocery store, is already under construction. “That is the first grocery store south of the Santa Monica freeway to locate in the district in probably several decades”, says Perry (link).
In Chicago:
Sweet home Chicago has become too sweet for some. More than 500,000 residents have no easy access to grocery stores and consequently eat a diet of fatty, salted and sugared snacks from local convenience stores. The unlikely savior of Chicago (the West and South parts, anyway) may be Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is currently scouting 12 locations in the “food desert” in response Mayor Daley’s assertion that many neighborhoods are in dire need of grocery stores. John Bisio, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said there is a new sense of urgency from city officials due to the worsening economy and job losses (link).
Chicago is known for its adversity to chains like Wal-Mart. The city once proposed “big box” taxes and regulations that adamantly discouraged large retailers from building within the city limits (link). With Mayor Daley’s call for access to cheaper, healthier foodstuffs, Wal-Mart brings certainly brings more to the table thanks to its expansion into food service. North siders may complain about the evil of Wal-Mart, but those dwelling in the deserts of the South and West side will actually have food within walking distance.
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With the economy in shambles, the construction of new grocery stores and Wal-Marts in dilapidated and ignored communities will provide both good food and at least a few paychecks. We can stimulate the economy by helping to eradicate hungry stomachs.
February 9, 2009
Tags: change, Health, hunger, nutrition, obesity Posted in: Health, Politics
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