Brother, Can You Spare an Apple?

You can't choose healthy foods if you don't have access to them. And that's the dilemma faced by millions of residents in the "Food Deserts" of America.

A food desert is a geographic area with no, or distant, grocery stores often served by plenty of fast food restaurants. In our 2006 breakthrough study, Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago, we identified a half-million Chicagoans who live in the Food Desert. These residents are more likely to die and suffer prematurely from diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. The relationship is what we researchers call "statistically significant." Many factors, such as personal choice, contribute to health, but location matters. If an apple is further away than a burger, then the chances of choosing fresh food more often than fast food is a mirage.

We have conducted similar studies in Detroit, rural Michigan, Louisville, Harlem, Richmond, and other areas. Chicago is not alone in its Food Desert dilemma, although it is a leader in advancing solutions.

This is why we picked the Windy City to launch the first-ever National Food Desert Awareness Month (September) with an Aug. 31 rally in the Far South Side neighborhood of Roseland, a Food Desert. The awareness month is sponsored by the National Center for Public Research, an organization I helped found to provide meaningful and unbiased data and information to improve quality of life, quality of health, and financial well-being.

At the kick-off rally, Roseland participants waved signs that read "Our Community Eats Organic," "Welcome, Grocers!" and "My Baby Digs Fresh Vegetables." One sixteen-year-old girl held up a sign with a simple, one-word request: "Grapes!"

There were no grapes on hand. Instead, Rodney Scaman, co-founder of Goodness Greeness - the largest privately-held organic produce distributor in the U.S. - distributed 1,300 Pink Pearl apples as a reminder of the link between food choice and health. The apples went quickly. But as Scaman told the Chicago Tribune and various TV newscasters filming the event, if you want to buy a Pink Pearl apple in Chicago, you have to head to the city's North Side or beyond to the North Shore suburbs. They're a rare find in Roseland.

Which brings me back to the issue of location.

Throughout my entire first career as a community development practitioner, I learned hard lessons about location. Long ago, I managed a commercial strip on the far Southeast Side of Chicago that had an unsightly, sloping, vacant lot in the heart of the district, strewn with litter and tires. On my first day on the job, I was informed that a man was recently chased down and beaten to death there. A policeman, thinking back on the incident, shook his head and said matter-of-factly, "This is a pretty bad location."

It was. Gangs. Drugs. Violence. Commercial decay. Something had to be done. Working with the community we turned the vacant lot into a garden. It sprouted flowers, vegetables, an art show, and even a wedding. For lots of reasons, it eventually improved on the location radar, to the extent that the land became more valuable and demand for it increased. The private sector built a storefront on the site several years later and the garden was no more. The land returned to its intended function. The business district became bustling and vibrant. In community development, and in neighborhood markets, too, the cycle of boom, bust, and revival is always a local condition.

It is the same with public health. Local land use decisions are, in many respects, public health decisions. And while one plot of land does not directly cause either life or death, community revitalization or decline, it certainly can influence those outcomes. As far back as 1926, the Supreme Court rendered an opinion that government has a responsibility to promote and protect public health, and that government can therefore control land use to that end. So to be a community planner and not care about health, or to be a health official and not care about the built environment, means opportunities are lost.

But there is another dimension of lost opportunities: the market.

Much of my time at my research firm is spent conducting market studies for private companies. We calculate buying power and local demand for all kinds of products and services. We identify the competition. We write long and highly technical explanations about agglomeration and how like attracts like in the world of retail. The vast majority of these studies never become public. We understand that.

The National Center for Public Research makes its information available to the public and asks different kinds of questions. Here's one: can the market do well by doing some good? Why not?
In Chicago alone we have identified a half-million-plus people who live in a Food Desert with no or distant grocery stores but nearby access to fast food. A substantial number of them are single mothers and children. My guess is that women, more than anyone else, know the importance of food to stitching together the delicate continuum of life. It is ironic that these women are the most disenfranchised from the food market given that they probably value and understand it more than any other consumer group.

And by the way, not everyone in the Food Desert is poor. In the Chicago food desert, there are 203,369 households of which:

• 63,355 or 31% have an annual income of $50,000 or more

• 29,561 or 14% have an annual income of $75,000 or more

• 14,194 or 7% have an annual income of $100,000 or more

Food is indeed our most basic common denominator, arguably more than housing or any other good. We all need food regularly to live, but our response to food as a commodity differs. The National Center for Public Research aims to bring all these different perspectives together and provide them all with the same neutral, unbiased, high quality data and information so that they can continue the dialog on safe ground.

So back to solutions to the Food Desert. There are many in Chicago and around the country. We will be blogging about them all this month, answering questions, and responding to comments.
Let's talk about the market and how to get these deals done. Let's talk about the challenges to healthy food and exercise. Let's talk about the food system. Let's talk about USDA "Food Stamp" retailers that are really liquor stores. Let's talk policy. Let's talk action.

On September 23, we will co-convene an invitation-only Grocer Expo with the City of Chicago. On September 30th, we will release an updated Food Desert analysis that reflects all the grocers that have moved in and out of Chicago since our 2006 study.

After September, we will move on to other topics, providing data and analysis. Your ideas are welcome. Feel free to post your comments or write to me privately at [e-mail].

We look forward to hearing from you.

Comments

[shahidmustafa]

I have worked as a general manager in natural foods cooperatives for over 10 years now and I am a strong advocate of the co-op model. I am working on developing a co-op model for food deserts in urban and rural areas because I think this model is the most logical solution to this problem. Imagine food stores that are community owned, operated, and driven in these areas. As a native son of englewood (now living in New Mexico) I am always looking for ways to return valuable service to the people of my community and this is how I intend to do it. Perhaps I'll try to get in touch with Mari to see if we can partner on this project. There are so many resources available I'm sure we can make this work. Stay tuned.

[BillBMN]

Mari has done a great service by bringing visibility to a root problem that is a far bigger threat to our cities, nation and economy than most people realize. The poor patterns of nutrition among low-income population­s--signifi­cantly a result of the food deserts--is a root cause of major issues such as poor performance and dropping out of schools, rising healthcare costs, social service costs and the ripple impact from those issues. Diets of snacks, junk-food and the other health-destroying foods that characterize food deserts doesn't just impact those who suffer from poor nutrition. The impact of those eating pattens creates social costs that we all pay the price for. This is an area where solid progress can bring about great benefits to all levels of society, from those who can enjoy the many benefits of good nutrtion to the taxpayers who often pay the massive indirect costs of poor nutrition. This issues needs to be treated as a national priority (and a local priority for people who want to improve their cities.)

[lmwoos]

As other commentors have stated, what a great way to get creative ideas going about how to solve the food desert problem. Yes I agree one aspect is access - and for the poor who live in walk-up apartments and have no car, schlepping heavy groceries up lots of stairs from the bus or a long walk with a grocery cart while watching your children is really hard to do - ergo, perhaps this fosters some unwise food choices that are at least close by, handy and portable (bags of fresh veggis and fruits are HEAVY). I believe there's also a problem of better food/nutrition education and a missed opportunity of getting good food into the schools, along with involving the rest of the family (send home info on great nutrition, recipies, invite families in for "healthy Lunch" days, get local chefs/rest­auranteurs­/pols/cele­bs involved, etc.). Regarding access, being a Chicagoan, Manhattan's green grocers fascinate me. Finally, there's a new push in Illinois to suport local food/local farmers, re how to create reliable markets for Illinois/Great Lakes food producers in the Chicago region and make sure food desert residents benefit. Some of us are working on this issue (from the local food angle), and kudos to Mari for her food desert work - surely there's a tie-in here! Will stay posted to this blog (this is my first time participating in a blog), and P.S. the mobile food vendor ideasfrom other commentors is really interesting.

[dwheitner]

An important cause and excellent idea! If you're not already using this as a data source, you may wish to look at the resource "Veg Guide" (www.vegguide.org). Their extensive geocoded database of vegetarian and vegan restaurants and shopping amenities would serve as one good indicator of availability of healthy food.

[cgermata]

Great article, great cause, great work, Mari, et al! Talk about passion! You got it!

[mergina]

I miss the neighbourhood grocery stores.

[djlresearch]

Great discussion. We can talk all day why grocers won't build stores in food deserts but the bottom line is they can't make money and they to be blunt, they just don't feel comfortable being there.

So we need to find a way to help them make money and feel comfrortable with regards to personal safety.

1. Make the site the grocer opens on a sales tax free zone. Saves people money and even might be an incentive for people outside the area to come shop.

2. Partner up with local schools for nutritious brown bag lunches. The free lunch program at schools does nothing but hurt grocers. So get the grocers involved.

3. I'm not big on corporate welfare such and fee land, no property tax, and guaranteed ROIs, but I do support just getting the city planning departments off grocers backs and let them build the store they way they want.

4. Better security and lighting. Security needs to be seen but low key. Cut out the mock police cruisers parkeed at the entrance or the police substations. Thats just plain creepy. Hire pleasent consumer friendly security guards who make customers feel comfortable.

[NHI]

Grass-roots groups around the country are springing up to address the problem of food deserts in low-income communities. Read Kari Lydersen's article, "Making Food Deserts Bloom," in the Summer 2008 issue of Shelterforce: The Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Building, at http://www.shelterforce.org/article/984/making_food_deserts_bloom/

[mozart2]

How about delivery options or mobile grocers? Not ideal, but may be an option. You gotta have easy access to health food!

[curitiva]

There is at least one such effort in NYC where there are fruits and vegetable carts in low income neighborhoods. It is a complicated issue though. On one hand you are asking retailers to come into underserved neighborhoods, on the other hand you are making their ability to attract customers difficult by providing alternate options. Lets say the alternate options are just a temporary solution until you can get a full service grocer, then what do you do about the fruit and vegetable vendors? What happens to them? There are a few articles on this. Here is one link
http://www.nysun.com/new-york/fruit-cart-vendors-legislation-could-provoke/71748/
The issue is very complex and it varies state by state and city by city. Possible strategies that work in one area might not in another for a variety of different factors.
In a city like NY b/c of density and just overall traffic it is possible to try most things, but a lot of those wont translate effectively to other places. There is a lot going on and different cities/areas are experimenting with different strategies. I guess I rambled to make two points:
1. It would be interesting to have a summit to share current efforts and come out with some best practices
2. The issue is affecting all of the US but the way to tackle it, has to be specific to local conditions. The same efforts wont work the same way everywhere.

[chanticlara]

It's hard to imagine not being able to buy grapes in a grocery store in August. Access to healthy food in the 'hood is a worthwhile topic that hasn't received much coverage in the past. I look forward to seeing what comes out of the September 23 Grocery Expo.

[elwyte]

Is there an entrepreneurial opportunity to be cultivated here through some public sector support targeted to startup grocery products retailers?
And what obstacles prevent the chains from servicing these areas?
It certainly sounds as if the demand is sufficient, although my guess is that it's erroneously mis perceived by mainstream retailers as disorganized and difficult to service without major capital investments. Of course, that's an issue of financial benefit & presentation.

[curitiva]

Theoretically yes, there is an entrepreneurial opportunity. There are a lot of issues that will make that opportunity foster or not. For instance, grocers sales volumes do not translate into profits. There are few items in which grocers have a high margin which allows them to make profit in spite of other items where they loose. Questions such as what is the right grocer to service a particular area, what is the right product mix in that area, and the like become very important. In addition, not all areas are able to sustain large grocers. Grocers are also working to set up retail formats that are smaller and adept for servicing urban areas. This obviously, is not a quick fix.
Many grocers that see the urban potential are working on answering such questions. In other cases there are also zoning issues, permitting problems, etc. In most cases retailers think there is a market but they have trouble finding data to back their perceptions. Once that problem is solved they then need to go through complicated permitting processes.­..etc...so although retailers are aware of the potential of urban areas and the demand the process of setting up retail locations in underserved neighborhoods is not fast.

[Hereslookingatu]

Great. Great to see Mari on Huffpo Chicago.