As part of her Let’s Move initiative to end childhood obesity, Michelle Obama said we must eliminate “food deserts” in this country. I couldn’t agree more.
Food deserts are low-income areas where full-service grocery stores are scarce and fast food chains are often plentiful. Access to healthy, affordable foods and beverages is limited, resulting in higher rates of obesity and diet-related diseases in residents. In numerous cities across the United States, studies have documented a troubling “grocery gap”: low-income and minority communities often have far less access to full-service grocery stores than do higher-income communities.
As a community economic development (CED) practitioner, I am particularly passionate about the role community gardens, community supported agriculture (CSA), produce co-operatives, and farmers markets can play, not only in promoting a healthy lifestyle, and lifting community spirit and pride, but also creating opportunities for community economic development. They are also a source of satisfying labor, neighborhood improvement and also allow for interaction with nature and the productive use of land. I also understand that while supermarkets are anchors which bring economic development, supermarket development can take years. In the meantime, alternatives must be created to traditional supermarket development. I believe that if you can grow your own food while owning a stake in the business of food, it provides opportunities to promote entrepreneurship, ownership and microenterprise development.
Examples of Community Gardens and Farmers Markets in the NeighborWorks Network
In the NeighborWorks network, we see community gardens and farmers markets sprouting up all over the country. Take for example the Brooklyn Centre Community Orchard being planned in Cleveland, OH. This summer, residents hope to turn their Brooklyn Centre neighborhood, labeled a food desert, into a food oasis. A vacant expanse of land, which had fallen into disrepair and a magnet for crime and drugs, will be the site of the neighborhood’s first large-scale, resident-run community orchard.
Darren Hamm, sustainable housing specialist with Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland is leading this effort. Hamm, who is also president of the Brooklyn Centre Community Association, said that a course on neighborhood stabilization he took at the NeighborWorks Training Institute was his inspiration to develop the orchard.
In California, the NeighborWorks Homeownership Center of Sacramento was recently awarded a $20,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to help create a farmer’s market in the Oak Park neighborhood they serve. The new Oak Park Farmer’s Market, which opened on May 15, improves access to affordable, high-quality fruits and vegetables in an area where just one supermarket exists. It is also a source of income for a diverse group of farmers, including smaller, local and immigrant farmers from the Sacramento area. The homeownership center worked in partnership with community residents, community garden advocates, backyard growers, and fresh produce sellers to launch the farmer’s market, and the group intends to make Oak Park the sustainable food center of the Sacramento Region.
Youth get excited about growing their own food too. In Worcester, Massachusetts, Oak Hill Community Development Corporation’s Charlie Buffone Community Garden is run entirely by neighborhood youth. The vegetable and fruit garden is cultivated with all organic materials and toxic chemicals are strictly prohibited. They give away the produce to neighborhood residents, including making fruit and vegetable baskets for senior citizen homes. Check out the website, which is also maintained entirely by the young volunteers. If you’re on Facebook, see photos of their garden.
Obesity and Poverty in the District of Columbia
I recently had the opportunity to complete my graduate work, which involved obesity prevention among African Americans while increasing access to fresh foods, green spaces and safe places for low income communities in Washington, D.C. In the District of Columbia, particularly Southeast D.C, there are tragically high rates of food insecurity and hunger. Hunger and food insecurity have been called America’s “hidden crisis.” Childhood obesity is an especially pressing issue in Washington, DC. In the Trust for America’s Health’s fourth annual F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies are Failing in America, 2007, the rates of overweight children (ages 10 to 17) in the District were reported at 22.8 percent, the highest in the study.
African-American children of Wards 7 and 8 have the highest poverty rate among children in the District— 47 percent. Ward 7 & Ward 8 have a poverty rate of 31 percent and an average 40 percent of the children are obese. These wards share only two grocery stores, while wealthier Wards 2 and 3 have almost half of the city’s supermarkets. These communities also have high crime rates, which too often limit residents’ use of the parks and other green space in their midst.
Not surprisingly, these areas have almost no access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Not only are lean meats and fresh produce more expensive, they are not always readily available for low-income residents in D.C. If you look at rates of obesity, diabetes, poor access to grocery stores, poverty rates, unemployment and hunger measures, the District of Columbia rates are high in all areas. They’re all very much interconnected.
While the need for supermarkets in this area is dire, supermarket development can take years. Investing in helping corner stores sell healthy food is a viable, sustainable solution to the problem of food deserts, and it makes good economic sense. Also improving the dozens of corner stores that already are fixtures in low-income neighborhoods is a relatively quick and low-cost way to improve access to healthy foods.
The District can use innovative strategies for bringing fresh and healthy foods into underserved areas: farmers’ markets, mobile markets, and “veggie” carts are just several examples. Farmers' markets, another source of fresh foods, are also unequally distributed. Only two of the 21 farmers' markets in the District are east of the Anacostia. Overall, D.C. is underserved by alternatives such as, grocery cooperatives, community supported agriculture, and community gardens.
The DC Healthy Corner Store Program
Here in Washington, DC, I’m involved in a novel approach to increase access to fresh produce and other healthy foods in Wards 7 and 8, called the DC Healthy Corner Store Program. The project, led by D.C. Hunger Solutions, with support and funding from the D.C. Department of Health, and in partnership with KAGRO (Korean American Grocers Association), community-based organizations, and small retailers in the city aimed to increase access to fresh produce and other healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods, and to increase small grocers’ capacity to sell healthy foods successfully.
The Healthy Corner Store Program persuaded markets to provide space for fresh produce, low-sugar snacks, and other nutritional upgrades. In addition to assessing where the District residents can find healthy foods in their communities, the Healthy Corner Store Program focused on educating corner store owners/managers and their customers on how to choose foods that promote good health.
Strategies to improve corner stores can be implemented in conjunction with economic development incentives and technical assistance to small business owners. Cities such as Pittsburgh, Boston, and New York have used public/private partnerships to bring supermarkets into underserved areas. A number of initiatives in places such as Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache reservations are working to develop models for creating “healthy small stores” in communities that suffer from a lack of access to affordable and nutritious food. New York City recently passed legislation for up to 1,000 "green carts" to operate in certain areas of the city to sell fresh produce.
The Federal Government's Healthy Food Financing Initiative
There is more money than ever available for alternatives to supermarkets and grocery stores and I am very excited about the opportunities and possibilities being created by the Obama Administration, which has been very aggressive in its efforts to stem the epidemic of childhood obesity, hunger, food insecurity and food access by strengthening Federal nutrition programs.
In February 2010, the Obama Administration released details of an over $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which will bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities across America. The initiative was created to work in conjunction with First Lady Michelle Obama’s recently launched Let’s Move! Campaign, designed to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. The Healthy Food Financing Initiative will promote a range of interventions that expand access to nutritious foods, including developing and equipping grocery stores and other small businesses and retailers selling healthy food in communities that currently lack these options. The initiative is a partnership between the Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.
Through this new multi-year Healthy Food Financing Initiative and by engaging with the private sector, the Obama Administration will work to eliminate food deserts across the country within seven years. With the first year of funding, the Administration’s initiative will leverage enough investments to begin expanding healthy foods options into as many as one-fifth of the nation’s food deserts and create thousands of jobs in urban and rural communities across the nation.
Through the joint initiative, which was included in the President's Budget for 2011, Treasury, USDA, and HHS would use the funding for financial and technical assistance to community development financial institutions, other nonprofits, and businesses with sound strategies for addressing the healthy food needs of communities. The initiative will make available a mix of federal tax credits, below-market rate loans, loan guarantees, and grants to attract private sector capital that will more than double the total investment. Federal funds will support projects ranging from the construction or expansion of a grocery store to smaller-scale interventions such as placing refrigerated units stocked with fresh produce in convenience stores.
These investments not only improve food options, but also create jobs, help revitalize distressed communities, and, importantly, open up new markets for farmers to sell their products, which can provide an economic boost to rural America. This initiative is part of a broader Obama Administration commitment to promoting economic recovery, including support for small businesses and job creation. It is also part of the Administration's efforts to revitalize neighborhoods and communities by employing place-based approaches--strategies that target the prosperity, equity, sustainability and livability of places.
In February, 2010, the President’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity was established by a Presidential Memo in February and includes the Departments of Agriculture, Education, and Health and Human Services, focuses its attention on the following four objectives: Ensuring access to healthy, affordable food; increasing physical activity in schools and communities; providing healthier food in schools empowering parents with information and tools to make good choices for themselves and their families. The Task Force will develop a national action plan that maximizes federal resources and sets concrete benchmarks toward the First Lady’s national goal of solving the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation.
I have been invited to provide comments and participate in numerous work groups and task forces, including the Presidential Task Force on Childhood Obesity, and the First Lady’s Let’s Move Initiative.
I have also been invited to participate in a meeting on the federal government’s nonprofit capacity building efforts by the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation Corporation for National and Community Service.
For More Information
For more information about farmer’s markets, including funding, how to start one and where to locate them in your state, visit the USDA’s website.
More information about community gardens, including funding, locations, best practices and tips can be found at the American Community Garden Association’s website.
For more information on the Healthy Food Financing Initiative or the First Lady’s Let’s Move Initiative, visit http://www.ustreas.gov/press/releases/tg555.htm and http://www.letsmove.gov/accessing/index.html
