To Eliminate Food Deserts, Pass the FEED DC Act of 2010

If you visit Washington, D.C.'s Ward 7 or 8, you'll notice several kinds of businesses — fast food joints, corner stores, and gas stations, to name a few. But one type of shop is conspicuously absent — grocery stores.

Folks who live in the city's Ward 7 and Ward 8 reside in food deserts, areas that lack supermarkets, farmers' markets, and other places where folks can get fresh, healthy goods. Wards 7 and 8 are also the two regions of the city with the lowest average household incomes. While the wards boast 23 percent of the D.C.'s population, they only contain 16 percent of the city's grocery stores. In contrast, Wards 2 and 3, the region's with the highest average household incomes, boast 27 percent of the city's population but contain 44 percent of its grocery stores. Anyone else notice a massively unjust discrepancy there?

City Councilmember Mary Cheh sure did, and she aims to fix the problem one shop at a time. Cheh proposed the Food, Environmental, and Economic Development in the District of Columbia Act of 2010 (FEED DC). The bill comes up with a multi-pronged approach for fighting food deserts within the city.

FEED DC hopes to improve access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods by upping the number of grocery stores offering up fresh, nutritious vittles. The plan will renovate existing stores and attract new supermarkets to the area, a move that will not only improve food access, but create jobs. The legislation would also help corner stores overhaul their merchandise by selling fresh produce and other healthy items as opposed to the usual chips-and-soda selection.

Improving existing stores and adding new ones would certainly improve food access, but the initiatives focuses on more than just edibles. FEED DC also aims to boost the number of jobs available in Wards 7 and 8 and encourage food stores to adopt green technology.

The bill comes not a moment too soon — recent statistics reveal just how much of an impact food deserts are having on residents' health. While about half of the D.C. population weighs in as overweight or obese, this figure is much higher in Wards 7 and 8. In Ward 8, for example, 71.5 percent of the population is overweight or obese.

You see, food deserts aren't just about a lack of access to food — they're regions where folks can only access the wrong kinds of foods. Without grocery stores and farmers' markets, residents must buy their eats at corner stores, gas stations, and fast food joints — all of which tend to plunk themselves in low-income areas. These types of purveyors specialize more in the greasy, packaged-type of fare rather than fresh vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats.

Folks in Ward 7 and 8 have chowed down on corner store crap for far too long. Sign our petition asking D.C.'s City Council to vote in favor of the FEED DC Act.

Photo credit: IntangibleArts via Flickr