Full Service Grocery Store

For the first time in 30 years a new, full services grocery store will be built in Bayview. The significance of this development cannot be underestimates. According to Policy Link "For decades, low-income urban and rural communities have faced limited opportunities to purchase healthy food. In the 1960s and 1970s, white, middle-class families left urban centers for homes in the suburbs, and supermarkets fled with them—taking jobs and tax revenues along with their offerings of healthy, affordable food. Low-income urban residents with limited transportation options did much of their shopping at small local stores that had limited selection and high prices. Disparities in access continue today, contributing to obesity and related health problems.

Increasing access to affordable, good quality, healthy food is one strategy to address the obesity epidemic and related conditions, like diabetes and heart disease, which disproportionately affect low-income people of color. Individuals make choices about their eating and exercise habits, but their choices are affected by the environments in which they live. One important reason many poor families have poor diets is because they lack access to places that sell decent quality, nutritious foods at affordable prices. Families in these communities are forced to make difficult choices about their food purchases because of this “grocery gap,” or disparity in access to healthy food, along with income and time constraints that result from poverty. In many low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities, the only choices are foods high in fat, calories, and sugar that are available at convenience and corner stores and fast food restaurants.