Food for Thought for Dec. 22, 2011
Access to groceries slim for many in BR
Like many of you, I’ve been doing a lot of cooking during this holiday season, and, consequently, have been doing a lot of grocery shopping.
Thankfully, I have many good options from which to choose when I need to run out for yet another bag of flour or wheel of brie.
There’s my conveniently located neighborhood Bet-R, with its friendly service and manageable size; nearby Calandro’s, with its great meat department and well-priced wines; Albertson’s, with its wide array of produce and good values on commodity items; and Whole Foods and The Fresh Market, for gourmet goodies, healthful foods and hard-to-find, exotic items.
There are plenty of others, too, about which I could wax enthusiastically. Those mentioned are just the stores I frequent on a regular basis because of their close proximity to my home or office, which makes me pretty fortunate.
But many in our midst are not so lucky. While we have a plethora of supermarkets in many parts of the city — a direct result of the economic prosperity of those areas — some neighborhoods have few food options, if any.
The grass-roots community group Together Baton Rouge is trying to change that. The organization, which seeks to bridge the wide gaps in income, education and quality of life that exist within our community, has identified a so-called food desert in Scotlandville and is working to bring a full-service grocery store to the north Baton Rouge area.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a food desert is an area that lacks adequate sources of fresh, affordable, nutritionally balanced food; in other words, it’s a neighborhood with a shortage of supermarkets. Food deserts exist in rural and urban areas, though more often the latter, particularly in low-income areas.
Scotlandville is one such area. According to data compiled by Together Baton Rouge from U.S. Dept. of Agriculture sources, nearly 89 percent of the more than 18,000 residents of Scotlandville have “low food access.” Of those, 4,400 are children under the age of 17, and more than 1,800 are senior citizens.
True, there are supermarkets in north Baton Rouge, and if you have a vehicle, they don’t seem all that far away. There’s a Piggly Wiggly, for instance, on Harding Boulevard.
Many in Scotlandville do not own a car, however, and nearly a third of the neighborhood’s population lives more than a mile from that Piggly Wiggly. In a city that lacks sidewalks and has a laughable excuse for a public transportation system, that basically means those residents have no way to get there.
I recently spent an afternoon scoping out the Scotlandville food desert with Edgar Cage, who volunteers with Together Baton Rouge. We drove by two so-called food stores, but they clearly sold mostly packaged liquor, cigarettes and snacks.
The only legitimate neighborhood food store, Capitol Meat Supplies, had a variety of meats and a small selection of packaged foods, but the produce “section” consisted of two heads of iceberg lettuce, a few bunches of green onions, a small box of wilted tomatoes and a single crate of lemons and apples.
More troubling, the cracked floors were filthy, and the dust-covered shelves were disorganized and stacked haphazardly with packaged goods bearing the Good Value label that is Walmart’s house brand.
“People up here deserve to have access to quality food at an affordable price,” Cage told me. “It is incumbent upon us to educate the community and make them aware of this problem.”
Together Baton Rouge is hoping to attract a grocery- store chain to the area. It has identified potential sites and believes the market is there to support a real supermarket. It’s also talking to supermarket chains but as of yet has not had any success in inking a deal.
Food access is a very real problem, especially when we talk about the need to provide nourishing sustainable foods to the needy in our community, and the importance of educating them about preparing healthful, affordable meals that will help them combat the high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease that plague their demographic group.
But how can we do that if they do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and decent cuts of meats? How can we make it happen?
Let’s support Together Baton Rouge in its efforts and be mindful of the problem it is trying to combat. Think about it, especially over the next few days, as you find yourself in a warm, well-lit supermarket choosing from a variety of mouth-watering foods to serve at your holiday dinner.