Opiniated Observations
1. When folks in New York and elsewhere make this "experiment" in healthier living for impoverished people, then I'll stand up and cheer:
A. In at least the most underserved neighborhoods, place 1-3 good grocery stores, ...maybe New York could volunteer, and have a sister state, like Louisiana, where I bet half the underserved neighborhoods are rural.
I think of a food desert as some neighborhood where the majority of people cannot easily walk to their grocery store, and a majority are served by smallish stores with less than 50% "healthy choices".
What about a great idea, get 2-3 bodega owners or small store owners, form a cooperative store, and keep the bodegas, the small stores in business while offering real food choices to people.
B. How about picking the deepest deserts of food injustice, and developing community gardens in 50% of them as well as decent grocery stores? Pick up the guys who are already doing it in Detroit, Cincinnati, etc and pay them good wages for an internship on developing say, a few dozen in NY and La. ?
My program would : Allow overworked and underpaid and overtired folks fairly easy access to a variety of foods.
Keep the grocery selling business within the neighborhood or region by helping 2-4 already existing smaller stores develop a larger, more variety filled and less expensive store in the neighborhood.
Cashiers, grocers, butchers, florists, managers, gardeners, community gardening experts from other states...jobs, people. Jobs. Money back in the neighborhood.
Don't say " you cannot have this or that" when they do not have easy access to orange juice that isn't 2-3 times more expensive than the OJ in your typical grocery store!
See how people feel being able to do what just maybe even 30 years ago they were able to do, go along aisles and aisles of whatever food they like to eat...not just a choice of an overpriced banana versus a oversweetened cheap banana muffin...not just a choice of 99cents for a huge gignatic 48 oz cup of corn syrup versus a quart of oj probably 2-3 times that.
Choices are taken for granted by people who can either walk to their store, or have easy access to some sort of transportation to more than 2 stores that are under a half hour away...
Let's make the choices available. You cannot say a person chooses "wrong" when there is no or very little access to other choices out there.
A. In at least the most underserved neighborhoods, place 1-3 good grocery stores, ...maybe New York could volunteer, and have a sister state, like Louisiana, where I bet half the underserved neighborhoods are rural.
I think of a food desert as some neighborhood where the majority of people cannot easily walk to their grocery store, and a majority are served by smallish stores with less than 50% "healthy choices".
What about a great idea, get 2-3 bodega owners or small store owners, form a cooperative store, and keep the bodegas, the small stores in business while offering real food choices to people.
B. How about picking the deepest deserts of food injustice, and developing community gardens in 50% of them as well as decent grocery stores? Pick up the guys who are already doing it in Detroit, Cincinnati, etc and pay them good wages for an internship on developing say, a few dozen in NY and La. ?
My program would : Allow overworked and underpaid and overtired folks fairly easy access to a variety of foods.
Keep the grocery selling business within the neighborhood or region by helping 2-4 already existing smaller stores develop a larger, more variety filled and less expensive store in the neighborhood.
Cashiers, grocers, butchers, florists, managers, gardeners, community gardening experts from other states...jobs, people. Jobs. Money back in the neighborhood.
Don't say " you cannot have this or that" when they do not have easy access to orange juice that isn't 2-3 times more expensive than the OJ in your typical grocery store!
See how people feel being able to do what just maybe even 30 years ago they were able to do, go along aisles and aisles of whatever food they like to eat...not just a choice of an overpriced banana versus a oversweetened cheap banana muffin...not just a choice of 99cents for a huge gignatic 48 oz cup of corn syrup versus a quart of oj probably 2-3 times that.
Choices are taken for granted by people who can either walk to their store, or have easy access to some sort of transportation to more than 2 stores that are under a half hour away...
Let's make the choices available. You cannot say a person chooses "wrong" when there is no or very little access to other choices out there.