In 1995, little new development was occurring in West Fresno, a once thriving community composed of mostly African American and some Latino residents. For many years, residents had hoped that the Fresno City Council would allocate funds to improve neighborhood conditions. Concerned residents gathered together to prioritize what they most wanted from the city to spur development and decided construction of a supermarket was at the top of their list. The small food stores in the area charged high prices for little selection, and many residents had to depend on the bus to access the selection, quality, and prices available at supermarkets in other parts of the city.
Residents began advocating to bring a supermarket to their community. The Affordable Housing Coalition, which included churches and community groups, held a news conference in front of a supermarket in another part of the city, where members carried empty grocery bags and demanded that the Fresno City Council set aside money from its $11 million Community Development Block Grant to build a shopping center in their community. Over several years, these concerned residents continued to strategize and advocate in a variety of settings. They attended public hearings conducted by the city on community development block grant funds and met with city council members, the director of the city’s redevelopment agency, and other public officials. Coalition members got residents to sign petitions and turned out hundreds of residents at city council meetings. They also worked with the media, held press conferences, wrote editorials, built relationships with local reporters, and received ongoing coverage of their struggle in the Fresno Bee.
Once their supermarket campaign gained political support, the coalition continued to move the project forward. They ensured that the city allocated redevelopment funds to help build the supermarket; helped local government officials negotiate with local property owners to secure the land for the site; worked to ensure that jobs went to local residents; urged the city to make an agreement with a developer; got a police station built to ensure security at the shopping center; and urged the city to approve final zoning for the market.
Four years later, the supermarket opened. It has now been serving the community successfully for more than five years.
Although much research has been done on food access in inner city communities, less is understood about the food access problems faced by rural communities. Existing studies suggests that despite their proximity to some of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, many rural residents have little access to fresh, healthy foods.78 The rural poor have limited access to supermarkets, and even when they do reach supermarkets, they face prices that are about 4 percent higher than those charged by suburban stores.79 And while rural households generally have access to cars, those that do not are particularly burdened given the lack of public transportation options in rural areas. Many rural farmworkers, for example, have limited access to cars, and therefore have little mobility to reach stores beyond their immediate neighborhoods.80
Some of the promising strategies and policy options for improving access to healthy food outlined in this report are also relevant for rural underserved communities. Community organizations have successfully brought supermarkets to low-income rural areas. Dineh Cooperatives Incorporated, a community development corporation on the Navajo Nation, built a Basha’s Market in rural Chinle, Arizona that created over 170 jobs for local residents. The store has been profitable since its opening and has been expanded four times.81Other types of food retailers also show promise. The Selma Flea Market in rural Fresno County, California was the first flea market in the nation to accept electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards (food stamps) for purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables.82 Other good potential strategies for rural areas include: mobile markets, which are trucks that travel through communities selling healthy food; improved public transportation; community supported agriculture; and farmers’ markets organized by hospitals or other institutions or businesses.
In Harlem, two community organizations—The Community Association of East Harlem Abyssinian Triangle (EHAT) and the Abyssinian Development Corporation—worked for ten years to bring a supermarket to the community. When it opened in 1999, the 64,000 square foot, $15 million retail center anchored by a Pathmark supermarket was one of the new real estate developments that catalyzed Harlem’s recent commercial renaissance.
Community involvement was critical to the project. EHAT and Abyssinian secured project financing, leveraging three dollars of private sector funds for every dollar of public funding. They also negotiated an agreement with Pathmark to guarantee that at least 75 percent of the new jobs would go to local residents.83
The store faced many challenges along the way. Small local grocers, worried that they would be driven out of business by the new supermarket, protested the development. The majority of residents, however, welcomed the new store. EHAT helped them advocate for the development, the smaller grocers’ protest subsided, and the building process continued.
The store has been extremely successful. Data from 1999 showed that the supermarket met or exceeded industry averages in almost every category. An in-store bank branch has opened in the supermarket and provides residents with a safe, secure environment where they can do their banking. The store now has one of the largest produce departments in New York City.84
Baltimore mayor Martin O’Malley has prioritized returning the city’s vacant properties to productive use as well as bringing new grocery stores to the city. In January 2002, he launched Project 5000, a plan to reclaim 5,000 of the city’s 14,000 vacant and abandoned parcels.
The city is making progress with acquiring properties, and the Baltimore Development Corporation, the city’s quasi-public economic development arm, works closely with developers to assemble land for grocery store development. The city has also developed CitiStat, a parcel-based information system that enables the city to track its progress toward to Project 5000 goal.
Actively reclaiming properties and prioritizing supermarket development is a winning combination for healthy food access: since O’Malley took office, 18 new grocery stores have located in the city.85
In April 2003, Pennsylvania passed the nation’s first statewide economic development initiative aimed at improving access to markets that sell healthy food in underserved rural and urban communities. The legislation devotes $100 million of Governor Ed Rendell’s $2.3 billion economic stimulus package to agriculture projects, including the development of grocery stores and farmers’ markets.86 At the same time, the governor created an innovative new $40 million leveraged fund (the Fresh Food Financing Initiative), which will support the development of 10 new stores in underserved urban and rural communities across Pennsylvania.87
The supermarket legislation could not have been passed without the extensive research, advocacy, and leadership of The Food Trust, a nonprofit organization that develops programs and policies to promote food access and healthy eating. In 2001, the Trust released a report, Food For Every Child: The Need for More Supermarkets in Philadelphia, which found that poor supermarket access in Philadelphia is linked to the high incidence of diet-related diseases in many low-income neighborhoods. In response to the findings, Philadelphia City Councilman Blondell Reynolds Brown asked The Food Trust to convene a task force to produce a report recommending policy changes to improve the availability of affordable, nutritious food in underserved areas of Philadelphia. This task force comprised over 40 experts from city government, the supermarket industry, and the civic sector. One of the group’s recommendations was a statewide initiative to fund the development of new food retailers. State Representative Dwight Evans stepped forward to help make this recommendation a reality by pushing for its inclusion in the state’s economic stimulus package.
Along with the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition and The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), The Food Trust is now charged with implementing the Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI). The initiative was awarded $10 million by the Governor, and TRF is leveraging this money with private bank loans and its New Markets Tax Credits allocation to form a $40 million financing pool for fresh food retailers that locate in communities that are underserved by conventional financial institutions. The initiative will provide a range of financing resources such as pre-development grants and loans, land acquisition and equipment financing, capital grants for project funding gaps and construction, and permanent finance.
The first supermarket to be funded by FFFI, ShopRite of Island Avenue in southwest Philadelphia, opened on September 20, 2004. The 57,000 square foot supermarket created 258 jobs, over half of which went to local residents.88
Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) is a community based nonprofit organization that engages youth in projects that improve the urban environment in Bayview Hunters Point, a low-income community of color in southeast San Francisco. In 2000, LEJ undertook an assessment of the community’s food environment to identify and promote strategies to improve access to nutritious food in the neighborhood. The study was done in partnership with San Francisco Department of Public Health. Youth interns at LEJ participated in the research by surveying community members about their shopping needs and desires, and interviewing merchants about how they could stock healthier foods and build relationships with the community. Researchers also assessed the mix of food sold in corner stores. The interns found that corner stores were a primary food shopping destination for residents, and that these stores devoted an average of only 2 percent of shelf space to fresh food.
LEJ then launched the Good Neighbor Program, a partnership between Bayview’s community based organizations, businesses, and city government to improve the quality of foods available in Bayview Hunter’s Point. Six to eight youth interns participate in the program every year. The program developed criteria that define “good” store neighbors, including: devoting at least 10 percent of inventory to fresh produce and an additional 10 to 20 percent of inventory to other healthy foods; accepting food stamps; limiting tobacco and alcohol promotion; and adhering to environmental and health standards. Stores that agree to comply with these criteria receive technical assistance and training, energy efficiency upgrades, and marketing assistance. They also receive grants to make initial purchases of healthy foods and test how the items sell. This helps reduce the risk for store owners as they stock new merchandise.
LEJ is currently partnering with a small neighborhood grocery store, Super Save Grocery, to pilot how a Good Neighbor agreement would work. In exchange for the store’s commitment to stock fresh, healthy food, LEJ is engaging in outreach and promotion, encouraging the community to patronize the store through activities such as nutrition education and food tasting. The group also arranged for Whole Foods Market to provide free technical assistance to help Super Save better display the new produce. Since initiation of the program, sales of produce have increased by 15 percent.89 LEJ is attempting to continue their efforts by partnering with eight stores within the next two years.
Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit health maintenance organization, currently hosts 12 farmers’ markets and plans to operate 20-25 sites by late 2005. This includes new markets in California’s rural Central Valley, Hawaii, Maryland, and Oregon. Driven by a desire to improve health conditions for health plan members, staff, and community residents, Kaiser’s top administrators wanted to address community factors that contribute to individual health. Launching weekly farmers’ markets keeps Kaiser moving forward in its mission of being a leader in preventive health and healthy living while increasing access to healthy food in low-income communities and providing small family farmers with new sales opportunities.
Kaiser has three models of farmers markets. In their Farmers’ Market Association model, an association coordinates the logistics related to setting up and maintaining the market and Kaiser provides the space and promotes the market. In their Community Collaboration model, a community organization purchases produce from small farmers and transports and sells it at markets. This model reduces the time burden on farmers, and provides opportunities for at-risk youth or other community members to participate in selling the goods at the market. In their Unbrokered model, Kaiser works directly with one or two farmers without involving an association.
Kaiser is exploring creative ways to further its farmers’ market impact. The institution convened a workgroup to explore strategies to build on current successes and expand them into changes in policy. The workgroup is drafting policies that incorporate local purchasing into the hospital’s procurement practices. Kaiser is considering purchasing as much as 20 percent of the food used in its hospitals, cafeterias and business meetings from local organic growers.
West Oakland, California is a low-income African-American community that has long suffered from a lack of access to healthy food. The last full-service grocery store in the neighborhood closed its doors in 1993. For years, a coalition of community and church groups advocated for a supermarket and tried to convince Safeway or Albertsons to locate in the area, but both of the chains refused, citing lack of profitability and crime as barriers.90 A new independent grocery store opened in 2000, but many residents feel the store caters primarily to Oakland’s Korean residents—almost none of whom live in West Oakland.
In 2001, a group of concerned residents, community-based organizations, and social service agencies formed the West Oakland Food Collaborative (WOFC) to increase access to nutritious and affordable food while stimulating community economic development. The University of California, Davis gave the group a small planning grant to undertake a nine-month planning process to decide on a community strategy. The process resulted in the identification of five priority areas including: a thriving farmers’ market, small business development, a cooperative marketplace, liquor store “conversion,” and community greenspace. The group secured additional funds from The California Endowment and other funders to begin putting its plan into action.
The cornerstone of their effort is the Mandela Farmers’ Market, which opened in April 2003. One of the ideas behind the market is to connect black farmers—who suffer greatly from the displacement of small family farms from large industrial producers—to the community, which has a rich history of being a center for black culture. Every Saturday, farmers sell fresh, mainly organic, produce, and local residents sell jams, baked goods, jewelry, and other items. WOFC helped start up the farmers’ market, finding a site, completing paperwork to become a certified farmers’ market, and, with help from The California Farmers’ Market EBT Project based at The Ecology Center in Berkeley, obtained the authorization and equipment needed to accept EBT cards. The collaborative also provides ongoing support, providing the farmers and vendors with equipment, training, resources, and technical assistance. WOFC also helps residents get to the market by offering free, weekly shuttle bus service that stops at senior residential facilities, the West Oakland Health Center, and other neighborhood locations with limited public transportation access. The group plans to add benefits screening and application services at the farmers’ market to help residents apply for public benefits such as WIC, food stamps, and Medi-Cal.
The market is doing well and turnout is increasing, with about 200 customers a week. Nearly 70 percent of the customers are local residents. The prices are excellent: a survey found that Mandela Farmers’ Market offered the lowest prices of the 90 Bay Area farmers’ markets. WOFC hopes that the market will be self-sustaining within three years.91 In the meantime, the group continues to work on its other priority areas to ensure a “food secure” West Oakland: developing community-owned gardens and increasing access to other greenspace; persuading corner stores to sell healthier products; helping small businesses by developing a food distribution and delivery system and providing access to a commercial kitchen; and developing a locally-owned food cooperative.
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