Getting Around Food Deserts – Sustainable Eating

In many places the market is just not willing or ready to serve community food needs. Some neighborhoods are stuck with corner stores with nothing resembling fresh food (and even the processed food looks dead). Others still have grocery stores, but one wouldn’t dare touch the meat or produce. Others have restaurants, but even they fail to sell healthy foods and plus, they can get expensive really quick if they are using high-quality ingredients.

What could we do to dry up these food deserts? Short of demanding certain grocers set up shop or return to the neighborhood, here’s what we can do.

Promote Food Kitchens: In my hometown,  Greensboro Urban Ministry provides the traditional role of feeding the hungry through a soup kitchen and a food bank. However, DC Central Kitchen takes that one step further by training former prisoners and homeless to be world-class chefs. Not only do we have more people in low-income and predominately minority neighborhoods who can cook on a world-class level, we have a place in the community where people who work hard know they can come for a good meal.

Four more practical ideas on sustainable eating after the break.

Promote Food Delivery and Stockpiling: In Baltimore the Virtual Supermarket Project is a partnership with a library, grocery store and health department to deliver food to people in neighborhoods without functioning supermarkets and who are on federal food assistance. In Pittsburgh, when a downtown grocery store shut down after just two years of business, local grocers and the community stepped in to develop a food delivery service of their own. If we can get more grocers to agree, we can implement this in many neighborhoods. Prior to seeing this, I felt that food delivery had the air of being a luxury. My two local upscale grocers offer personal shopping, where you can pick up the food and not have to shop yourself. Yet, in so many communities, from dense Manhattan neighborhoods, to areas who have not had local supermarkets in decades, food delivery has become a key step in getting rid of the food deserts. One last thing, if you are able to get a car and get to the store on your own, grab a few friends, make a list and cut your grocer trips down to once or twice a month. I’ve found that when I go with a big list and a meal plan, I save money and time by not going to the store so much and also buying things I don’t need.

Put a garden/farmers market next to the corner store: There’s a corner store in Downtown Greensboro called Coe’s Grocery, that not only has grocery items, but sells seeds and garden supplies. If he wasn’t landlocked on both sides, he’d be a great place to have a garden of his own. Remember, many gas stations and convenience stores are owned by independent franchisers. If you find they have extra space on their property, encourage them to let you or others dig it up and put a few plants in. If they don’t want to dig, see if they will let farmers come and set up shop in the spare areas of their parking lots.

Remember that we all eat bad food: Lately, the conversation on food has been focused on the economic demographics of the people who eat bad/good. However, a lot of the obesity struggle comes with poor health options and our lifestyles. If we all think about how close we are to an eating disorder of some sort, let’s take that drive and help us find ways (parks, gardens, support groups), to help each other eat better and not spend loads of money doing it.

What are some of your ideas for fixing food deserts?

Cross-posted at my blog