Food Deserts: Nontraditional Solutions

by Shawn MacDonald

My first exposure to “food deserts” (even though I did not know it at the time) occurred in the early-1990’s as a co-manager with The Kroger Company in Ann Arbor, Michigan upon reading an article in Supermarket News. While the terminology had yet to take hold, the article referenced a new Pathmark in Jersey City, New Jersey spearheaded by a faith-based community group. Although my recollection of the article has waned over the interceding years, I seem to recall that store sales exceeded $250,000 on grand-opening day (can you say “pent-up demand”?!).

Over the past 13 years, I have had many opportunities to view food deserts first-hand as a field analyst in the supermarket industry in places like Philadelphia, Detroit, San Diego, and Washington, DC. There is nothing more striking to me than walking into a darkly lit, cluttered, and sometimes smelly independent grocery store on Detroit’s highly-vacant east side, and then stopping at my favorite bright, clean, and well-stocked hometown supermarket on the way home from doing my fieldwork. To this day, Detroit is still the only major U.S. city without a major chain grocer – Farmer Jack, Kroger and Super Kmart have exited in the past ten years.

Growing up in suburban Detroit, there were nine supermarkets serving a 6-square-mile portion of my community – today, there are only three even though the population base has remained fairly stable. While most people have long-associated food deserts with urban areas, that is only part of the story. The facts state that more citizens are affected by urban food deserts, but there are also large swaths of the western U.S. considered “low access areas”. A 2006 Iowa State University study found a disproportionate number of “at risk households” (low-income and elderly) among rural areas than their more urban counterparts.

So, as under-served communities attempt to lure chain operators with tax-abatements and other “politico-economic” enticements, “brick and mortar” solutions are not the only plausible method to serve the multitude of food deserts across the country. Using “good ole American ingenuity,” clever organizers and entrepreneurs are taking matters into their own hands.

In a host of major cities, mobile food vendors are literally taking to the streets to deliver high-quality, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to under-served areas. In New York, a city-sponsored “Green Cart” program entices vendors to deliver goods to more than 750,000 residents living in food deserts. In Salt Lake City, a local food co-op’s “little farmers market on wheels” sets up shop at an elementary school on the city’s west side every Friday. In Richmond, Virginia, a concerned and industrious citizen loads his converted school bus with goods from local farms and ventures out in the city’s under-served areas.

On the rural front, ambitious high school students have taken up the cause in three communities left without grocery stores. In Arthur, Nebraska, the town’s only grocery store closed more than 10 years ago. So, eight students at Arthur County High School planned and opened Wolf Den Grocery in honor of their school’s mascot. Similar efforts have been launched in Cody, Nebraska and Leeton, Missouri. Research conducted by the Lyon, Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs reveals that school-based grocery stores are not only a viable way for rural communities to eliminate food deserts, they can also enhance the learning experience of budding entrepreneurs by developing skills in business planning, marketing, purchasing, logistics, and leadership.

Another concept beginning to get traction is the “virtual supermarket”. While the supermarket may only exist on the world-wide-web, the products offered are most definitely real. Chicago-based Peapod pioneered this concept in the early 1990’s, marketing primarily to busy, dual-income households. But now the idea is gaining momentum within public sector and non-profit circles as well. In Baltimore, the solution is a joint venture between the city’s Food Policy Task Force, a local grocer, and two public libraries. Residents can order and pay for their purchases at public computers within each library, and their groceries are delivered to that location the next day. A similar effort is being considered in Kansas City, Kansas.

Food deserts are not always a function of lack of supermarket square-footage within an area, but also can be characterized as a lack of access to goods and services. Studies have indicated that nearly 3.4 million households in the U.S. are within one-half to one mile from a supermarket, but do not have access to adequate transportation. Many of the non-traditional methods of addressing food deserts are removing such obstacles so residents may pursue healthier eating options.