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Michelle Obama’s War on Food Deserts

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Earlier this week, the first lady was joined by a band of grocery retailers and the Partnership for a Healthier America in announcing a bold new move to reduce food deserts in America.

Details:

1. The program will be bringing supermarkets within reach of 10 million Americans.

2. 1,500 new groceries will open in the next 5 years,  creating tens of thousands of new jobs.

3. Participating grocers include SuperValu, Walgreens, Walmart, and a few regional retailers. (Walgreens ?!?)

4. The plan, of course, is to sell affordable and nutritious foods.

As you may recall, Mrs. Obama’s Let’s Move! Campaign is all about reducing childhood obesity within a generation.While we maintain a healthy skepticism about the execution of this plan (It requires a revamped Farm Bill and an end to corporate lobbying as we know it), there is no doubt the first lady’s heart is in the right place.

All stats point to a clear relationship between access to nutritious foods and rates of obesity. According to the USDA 23.5 million people  live in food desert. 6.5 million are kids. Many are poor. Some don’t have cars or the ability to drive 30 miles to a decent grocery store. So getting a supermarket into their neighborhood, within walking distance, or a few bus stops, is a very big deal.

With respect to Walgreens which is the largest drugstore in the US and NOT synonymous with real food, plans are to transform 1,000 locations into “food oasis” stores, selling whole fruits and vegetables, pre-cut fruit salads and green salads and more healthy fare.

Let’s hope the plans do pan out instead of fizzling out once media attention disappears. In addition, we hope the new grocers will reach out to their communities with cooking classes and nutrition education. Because access to good ingredients is the first step, you then need to learn what to do with them…

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  • Sarah W.

    Once last year I walked into a Walgreens in Manhattan and saw that it sold whole fruit and fruit cups…I forget what else. It was the first drugstore I ever saw selling those things, and I was impressed.

    • Karyn

      There was a Walgreens in the San Francisco area (Daly City) that looked more like a grocery/department store than a traditional Walgreens.  They sold some dark chocolate fig candies that were absolutely addictive!  Not sure if that fits the idea of watering the “nutrition desert,” but at least they were natural, whole foods ingredients, as I recall.  And hey, it’s dark chocolate. ;-)  Moderation in all things.

  • Sixtyfive

    Much will depend on how this is implemented, but it’s a start, and one must start somewhere.

  • SAHM2

    I’m having a hard time with the “statistics” that correlate access to nutritious foods and rates of obesity.  I live in a midwestern town of 25,000 where everyone drives and could (in general) get to 3 grocery stores.  They occasionally try to put out organic or natural products, but it’s not long before they are withdrawn from the shelves because not enough people buy them.  I see carts and carts of junk going by- it’s what the customers here prefer. 

    I personally think this is going to cost huge money and fail.  I would rather see it go toward education, which is the heart of the matter, IMO.

  • Lawranch25

    The marketplace is structured this way because stores used to be in areas but were pulled out or closed because either that community was not strong enough to support the said store or because of crime. We used to have a Super Target, and HEB and a Kroger in one part of Houston, but they all pulled out because of the massave shop lifting that started occuring when a big demographic population shift happened in the neighborhood surrounding the area. Other areas where a population decreases the neighborhood support, or a shift in shopping patterns due to discount stores such as Walmart or Super Target can force outlying smaller stores to close because they can’t compete. This type of legislation can’t really fix this fairly. It is how the markets flow.

    • guest

      Sadly, this seems to be the main reasons that larger supermarket players don’t put stores in “food deserts”.  Why do you think Kroger/Albertson’s/Wal-Mart (insert large supermarket chain here) would look and see high population density and no other food sellers and say “GEE! INSTANT MARKET! LET’S SELL THEM STUFF, EVEN IF IT’S ALL GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE MONEY!!” The reason they don’t is it’s not worth the trouble to keep a store in the “food desert” areas.  Crime, theft, damage, vandalism, primarily low margin goods, these are all reasons why supermarkets don’t swoop in and start up stores where there’s obviously a market.

      Selling food is a business and it’s not worth doing business in the “food desert” areas, especially the urban “food deserts”.

  • http://www.thefrugaldietitian.com Nancy – The Frugal dietitian

    If they changed the choices for SNAP (food stamps) to healthier choices, those stores would offer the healthier items – the stores follow the money.

  • http://www.facebook.com/kenleebow Ken Leebow

    Access to real food is important. However, it is part if the solution. Millions of people live in a “food oasis” and are incredibly unhealthy.

    This is what their Main Street looks like (The Main Street Diet) … http://www.themainstreetdiet.com

  • http://thegreenorganiccownextdoor.blogspot.com Smokey

    Great intention! Now, have the “Big Box” participants offer, at least a percentage, of their food from “local” or regional producers.

    HEB grocers, a big box in Texas, is having tremendous success with buying Texas produced items…AND…competing with the discounters on price! 

  • http://thegreenorganiccownextdoor.blogspot.com Smokey

    Great intention! Now, have the “Big Box” participants offer, at least a percentage, of their food from “local” or regional producers.

    HEB grocers, a big box in Texas, is having tremendous success with buying Texas produced items…AND…competing with the discounters on price! 

  • TravisNR88

    Are there any concerns here whether the federal government should be funding supermarket construction?  In all things, supply rises to meet demand; the feds can’t create demand in rural and undeveloped areas.  This will be – yet another – total waste of taxpayer funds.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1245766187 Nikki Parker

    The sad fact is, most food deserts are in poverty-stricken areas, and many of the residents of these areas rent apartments or houses that do not have stoves, and sometimes do not have refrigerators. (If you only have a certain amount to spend on rent, you take what you can get.) If a person doesn’t have the means to COOK food, you can build all the grocery stores you want to it won’t make a difference.

    Also, I cannot tell you how many families I’ve seen where the mother (and father, if he is present) never learned how to cook. Again, if they don’t have the means (And that INCLUDES the knowledge) to COOK food, building grocery stores won’t make a bit of difference.