Food Deserts

Although I try to make time to pack a lunch each day, there are a few mornings here and there when I find myself rushing out the door empty-handed. Fortunately, being a librarian is flexible enough that on those days I can usually leave for a few minutes to run and get something to eat for lunch. My school is located deep in the heart of South Dallas where the lunch options within 10 minutes drive include McDonalds, Jack in the Box, a couple of fried chicken establishments, and a couple of local BBQ hole in the walls. The only grocery store within 5-6 miles (estimated) is Minyards...one grocery store serving all of South Dallas. Less than desirable produce and fresh meat coupled with high prices from lack of competition characterize South Dallas's only option for grocery shopping.

Fortunately for me, I can get in a car and drive the 15 minutes to a part of town that has quality grocery stores and restaurants with healthy options. Many people in South Dallas don't have that option. A large percent of the population here relies on public transportation and city buses. I hate lugging my 10-15 grocery bags up one flight of stairs each week. I can't imagine toting all of that through multiple stops and exchanges on a DART bus. No wonder its easier (and cheaper) to walk across the street to the liquor/corner store and buy a $.99 bag of hot chips.

Every day I see my students come into school with a bag of chips, candy, and soda. Every day I see them skip lunch in the cafeteria (school lunches have gotten just ridiculous...very poor quality food, tiny servings, and not worth the $2-3 paid for it) and opt for those type of nutritionally void snacks. After school, they visit the corner store again for more chips or maybe fork over their change to the rattly ice cream truck that is always rolling through the neighborhoods. Fresh fruits and vegetables are practically non-existent in this area, even in the school lunches that may be the only "meal" that some kids are given each day.

I read an article that describes this problem, sometimes called "food deserts." The introductory paragraph sounded all too familiar....

It's easier to buy fried chicken, red pop, and flaming-hot potato chips than it is to find an apple in certain middle-to-low income Black neighborhoods. In fact, visit a certain side of Any City, U.S.A., and you are likely to find the four corners of any given intersection occupied by a fast-food restaurant, a convenience store selling penny candy, a liqour store, and a fried chicken shack.

What's missing from this picture is a store selling high-quality fresh produce, such as apples, collard greens or broccoli; a store that is affordable and that is not four miles away. Does what's missing sound familiar?

Welcome to the food desert.

In Chicago, approximately 633,000 people, in a city with a population of 3 million, live in neighborhoods that lack a grocery store. Roughly half of Detroit's residents live in an area devoid of a mainstream full-service supermarket, leaving 460,000 people, who without a car or food-delivery service, don't have access to fresh fruit and vegetables. We can throw many more cities with the same problems into the mix. Memphis, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Atlanta, Richmond, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. (And Dallas!)

Food deserts are inextricably linked to a host of medical issues in our communities, chief among them diabetes and obesity. Simply put, if we ant to live longer, then we will have to eat better. To eat better, we need better food choices. Better food choices come from watering the food desert.

You know, I read a lot of the health and fitness magazines when I'm working out at the gym and they invariably have recipes and ideas for healthy eating that include all kinds of fruits, vegetables, grains, and cheeses that I've never heard of. I would probably have to go to Whole Foods or Central Market to find some of these things, and then pay out the nose for them. I'm a single, employed young professional who honestly cannot afford some of the most healthy stuff out there...eating healthy is not cheap! So I can only imagine if I were on a very limited income with limited transportation...healthy eating becomes an almost insurmountable challenge.

Are the people in South Dallas and neighborhoods like this so invaluable to our society that their health is of no importance to us or our economy? Are they not worth the investment of grocery stores and establishments that would give them options for food that could enhance their health and give them longer lives? Is health, like education and so many other things, just a privilege of the wealthy? People in South Dallas have to eat too. They have money to spend on food...many even have government assistance, such as food stamps. But they have nowhere to spend it. Wouldn't it be better use of government assistance if they could swipe their Lone Star card at Tom Thumb for some fresh fruit, veggies, and meat instead of at the corner store for some chips and soda? Without having to catch three buses and a train to get there? Even for those who can only be convinced by economical reasoning, the medical problems that result from lack of healthy eating only serve to inevitably place an enormous burden on taxpayers in the future, since many of the same people who don't have access to healthy food also may not have access to health insurance or medical/preventative care.

I know the reasons that food deserts exist are deeper and more complex than I can fully understand. But I do believe that solutions are out there. I do believe there are people who understand the systemic complexities and have the ability and power to make changes that can alter the status quo. People look at neighborhoods like South Dallas and have a million opinions and stereotypes about why the community is like this and why people aren't doing better. But there are also a million challenges that they've never had to even think about that these neighbors deal with on a daily basis, one of which is just figuring out how to put a decent meal on the table. I think it is important to just educate ourselves and be more aware of some of the obstacles that exist in neighborhoods like this and think about what we can do to advocate to eliminate some of those inequities.

What can our city do to eliminate food deserts? What can we do to bring healthy food back into forgotten neighborhoods? What can we do to show our neighbors here that we truly believe that they are important to us, that their health is important to us, that their right to a quality life is important to us? What can we do to ensure that the children in South Dallas aren't just taught about the nutritional pyramid in school but that they have the opportunity to put that knowledge into practice? When we strengthen a neglected part of our society, we strengthen our society as a whole. Solutions are out there...but does our city/state/nation care enough to find them?