Community redevelopment
Food deserts make healthy eating out of reach
This article is part of a multimedia project that details community initiatives in the Washington D.C. area to combat food deserts, or low income neighborhoods without access to healthy food, as part of graduate capstone class at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Every day in the District of Columbia, nearly one in eight households struggles with hunger as a result of limited access or ability to buy nutritionally adequate food, according to D.C. Hunger Solutions, a non-profit food action organization. They live in areas known as food deserts where people have to travel long distances for access to grocery stores that provide fresh fruits and vegetables. For residents of the District like Ward 8 resident Jewel Sims just getting to the grocery store is a struggle.
“I have to arrange for transportation because I know I’m not getting only one bag of groceries since I have to go so far,” said Sims. “And I don’t know when I’ll get to go again.”
Alix Ashbrook, director of D.C. Hunger Solutions believes the prevalence of food deserts in the district mirrors national trends and creates a ‘poverty tax’ for residents living in those areas.
“You’re putting an additional burden on them because they don’t have somewhere to shop.” Ashbrook said. “People go to the store and they shop for two weeks so they have to pay an informal taxi service costing up to 30 or 40 dollars.”
Food deserts can be either rural or urban, and often the only easily accessible places to buy food are convenience stores with packaged or fatty prepared foods and fast food restaurants with dollar menus. D.C. Hunger Solutions released a report When Healthy Food is Out of Reach showing the relationships between income levels, obesity rates, and number of full-service supermarkets in the area.
This data set is derived from the D.C. Hunger Solutions report When Healthy Food Is Out of Reach. It shows the disparity between wards in their access to grocery stores and how that directly correlates with high rates of obesity and diabetes.
Ward 3 had the highest average household income of $128,000, the most grocery stores (11) and the lowest percentage of overweight or obese residents (42.2). Contrast those numbers with Ward 8, showing an average household income of $29,000, just 3 full-service grocery stores, and 71.5% of residents who were obese or overweight. Ward 3 also has the best store to resident ratio of 1:7343 while Ward 4 only has one store for every 38, 440 residents. Another key finding in the report by D.C. Hunger Solutions shows a direct correlation between high rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes and the ratio of community population and number of supermarkets.
A history of hunger
According to Policy Link’s The Grocery Gap: Who Has Access to Healthy Food and Why It Matters beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, white, middleclass families left urban centers for homes in the suburbs, and subsequently supermarkets left with them. Once in the suburbs, grocers adapted their stores to suit their new environments, building ever-larger stores and developing chain-wide contracts with large suppliers and distributors to stock the stores with foods. Over the past several decades, the structure of the grocery industry has changed dramatically, with significant consolidation and growth in discount stores and supercenters. Obesity rates are even lower for those who can afford to shop a more upscale supermarket chains such as Whole Foods and Harris Teeter. Adam Drewnowski, a University of Washington epidemiology professor who studies obesity and social class found that the percentage of food shoppers who are obese is almost 10 times higher at low-cost grocery stores compared with upscale markets.
“If they wanted their diet to be healthy, they went to another supermarket and spent more,” said Drewnowksi.
This issue is also compounded by the fact that low-calorie foods cost more money and take more effort to prepare than processed, high-calorie foods.
“When you have a limited amount of money to feed yourself, you gravitate toward foods which supply the most calories per dollar and leave you feeling fuller,” said Drewnowksi.
East of the river in the most need of rain
The District has approximately one full-service grocery store for every 14,000 residents. But in Wards 4, 5, 7, and 8, which contain low-income areas, the store-to-resident ratio is lower than the District average. In addition, residents of Wards 4 and 7 in particular have considerably fewer square feet of full-service grocery retail space per person than the District average.
Local developer Tim Chapman thinks the city has been supportive in encouraging bringing more supermarkets by providing subsidies and funding to revitalize an area that hasn’t been developing at the same rate as other areas of the district.
“The east of the river community is largely ignored by national retailers, and undeservedly so,” said Chapman. “From an economic development standpoint, Anacostia is ripe with opportunities.”
National outlook on food deserts:
A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 23.5 million people lack access to a supermarket within a mile of their home. A recent multistate study found that low-income census tracts had half as many supermarkets as wealthy tracts. The District alone loses more than $112 million in annual grocery revenues to neighboring jurisdictions because existing grocery retail is insufficient to meet residents’ demand. Not only do food deserts suffer from lack of access to healthy food but communities miss out on the economic and health benefits they bring to neighborhoods. Increasing access to healthy foods is one of four key areas of the Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. One of the program’s major goals is to close the grocery gap in the next seven years with more than $400 million dollars in federal funding as part of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The administration projects this initiative will also create thousands of jobs in urban and rural communities.
“The Healthy Food Financing initiative is the first time federal funds will be appropriated for a food initiative,” said Ashbrook. “It’s a major step in the right direction.”
This program is modeled after Philadelphia started a healthy food financing initiative, which began with a modest federal investment and then leveraged to create an incentive for local businesses to serve in underserved communities. Locally, legislation will be introduced in the coming months that will create a healthy food access initiative on the local level, according to Ashbrook.
“It will assist developers and grocery store operators in securing financing to cover development costs,” Ashrbook said. “It would also flexible funding packages designed to draw more fresh food retailers into underserved areas of the District.”
The hope is to create hundreds of jobs, encourage local entrepreneurs to establish fresh food businesses in the District’s food deserts, and improve the existing food retail options.
Organic grocery store owner says yes to Southeast D.C.
This presentation is part of a multimedia project that details community initiatives in the Washington D.C. area to combat food deserts, or low income neighborhoods without access to healthy food, as part of graduate capstone class at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Yes! Organic Market owner Gary Cha has opened six organic grocery stores in the Washington D.C. area. His seventh store, scheduled to open in August, is east of the river in Anacostia, an area largely avoided by supermarket chains and developers because of its demographics and low income status. But for Cha, bringing healthy, organic food to these neighborhoods is simply the right thing to do.
All for the Common Good
This video is part of a multimedia project details community initiatives in the Washington D.C. area to combat food deserts, or low income neighborhoods without access to healthy food, as part of graduate capstone class at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Common Good City Farm (formerly called the 7th Street Garden) is an urban farm and education center growing food for low-income residents in Washington, DC and providing educational opportunities for all people that help increase food security, improve health, and contribute to environmental sustainability. Farm manager Spencer Ellsworth and volunteer coordinator Olivia Ivey discuss the farm’s mission to combat food insecurity in the district.
Ward 8 Farmers Market
This slideshow is part of a multimedia project that details community initiatives in the Washington D.C. area to combat food deserts, or low income neighborhoods without access to healthy food, as part of graduate capstone class at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ward 8 Farmers Market is a community and local farmer based grassroots market formed as a response to inadequate healthy food choices in Southeast D.C. and as a self-empowerment tool. The goal of the market is to ensure members of the community eat fresher, more natural and nutritious foods, and adopt healthier lifestyles for their long-term benefit as well as their children, families, and society. Organizers John Gloster and Virginia Major discuss how the market got started and its community impact. Click here to view a map of the market’s two locations.
Flood waters receded, but fear remains in Austell
Austell is a small town located about 18 miles from downtown Atlanta in Cobb County. Seventeen counties were declared a state of emergency by the Georgia governor following the flooding in September of 2009. However, for its size, Austell was perhaps the most greatly impacted leaving many homeless, displaced, and in thousands of dollars of debt. But many residents of Austell feel that the significant amount of rain is not only to blame and that the city of Austell should be held accountable for not heeding a series of warnings from 20 years prior.
Austell's Sweetwater Creek is fed into by four other creeks .
When rain begins to fall in the town of Austell, residents are fearful and rightfully so. It’s been six months since the city suffered a catastrophic flood that destroyed about 700 homes. Following more than 21 inches of rain Austell, which sits at the juncture of five creeks, saw the worst flooding to date and residents are still coping with the aftermath and demanding answers from the city’s government.
“I’m somewhat mentally traumatized from the whole event,” said resident Brian De Shong. “I never really paid attention to the creek before the flood. But now that we got flooded it’s on my mind all the time.”
De Shong and more than 90 property owners in Austell are suing the city for its “lack of action” in regards to flood prevention. According to Georgia law, residents have six months to file suit against a municipality following a natural disaster.
Flood History
Sweetwater, the largest of Austell’s creeks, has historically been prone to flooding and has been studied four separate times initially in 1964. Mayor Joe Jerkins says according to the most recent report, Austell doesn’t have many options.
“I had it studied by the Corp of Engineers in 1995,” Jerkins said. “There’s not a whole lot you can do. There’s only one answer to it and that’s putting a tunnel underground- but you’re looking at a couple million dollars to do it.”
The National Weather Service defines rainfall severity based on the amount of precipitation in a 24-hour period. September’s flooding was classified as a 500-year flood which has 0.2 percent chance of occurring each year. In 2005, Austell flooded to just below the 500-year flood mark and residents like Mike Otten say that with Austell’s history, much of the recent development should have never occurred and that potential buyers, like himself, should have been given forewarning.
“There should not have been homes built on this property period,” Otten said. “No notice was given that the land had flooded in a reasonable period of time. It wasn’t divulged that there had been significant damage just 200 yards away in 2005. But because it’s not technically in a flood zone they are not obligated – and that’s just wrong.
A Flawed System
The flood mapping system, last updated by the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) in 1992, determines what areas are most at risk for flooding based on river flow, storm tides, hydraulic analyses, and rainfall and topographic surveys. Flood-hazard maps display different degrees of risk, and determine the cost of insurance for homes that lie in the flood plain. However, because the maps are not regularly updated, factors such as development than can greatly impact flood risk are not accounted for.
“It’s inaccurate, and outdated,” said attorney Donald Stack. “It’s absolutely failed to take into account the additional development that has occurred. You change the entire topography and land use in an area but you don’t change the mapping?”
FEMA began a nationwide initiative in 2004 to update all state flood-mapping systems. According to the FEMA website, Cobb County’s system was updated in February of 2009, with an effective date of June 2010 – not soon enough for Austell residents. According to a census database, more than 1000 residential building permits were issued in Cobb County since 1995. In 2002 Norfolk Southern Intermodal rail yard, built in 2002, also greatly altered the topography, according to Stack. FEMA states that construction and development can change the natural drainage and create brand new flood risks. New buildings, parking lots, and roads mean less land to absorb excess precipitation from heavy rains, hurricanes, and tropical storms. By replacing impervious ground, the ability of the water shed to absorb the water is reduced.
“It’s got nothing to do with it,” said Jerkins. “Any of the building for the last 25 years have had retention ponds built so the water had places to go.”
Mayor Joe Jerkins discusses the impact of the flood and the responsibility of homeowners to have flood insurance. One of Jerkin’s own properties was also affected.
The Norfolk Southern Intermodal rail yard runs directly through the center of Austell. In a landmark decision, Norfolk Southern was permitted to build the railyard despite countywide opposition.
Flood plain location is important to homeowners because determines who is eligible for the federal home buyback program. Insurance companies also use flood-mapping systems to determine if homes require flood coverage. At the time of September’s flooding, only about three percent of Austell homeowners had flood insurance.
“Two weeks before the flood I was on the phone with the insurance company,” Otten said. “We actually talked about flood insurance and made the determination not to get it because we were not in a flood zone.”
The New Orleans of Georgia
Austell’s extensive history of flooding, recent development boom, and low-lying location proved to be the ‘perfect storm’ for September’s epic floods. Stack, who is representing Austell property owners in the upcoming suit, believes the responsibility is shared both by developers and Austell’s city government.
“Developers just come in and level everything – ignoring the natural topography and the city has allowed building on areas that shouldn’t be developed,” Stack said. “You’re bound to have problems, especially in areas with a history of flooding.”
Mike Otten discusses the impact of the railroad on the day of the flooding.
Fire and emergency response personnel will never forget September’s flood. Fire Chief Tim Williams said it was the most catastrophic of his career.
“To us it was our Katrina,” Williams said. “And we learned from it. The hardest part was seeing the looks on their faces and knowing that they lost everything.”
Justice for Austell
Stack is representing more than 50 families from Austell in a suit against the city. Stack stated: “The city has been and continues to be negligent in the performance of its ministerial duties. The city has illegally changed and permitted the change of flood plains and drained elevations, causing and contributing to our clients’ damage and injury.” Demanding compensation for his clients, Stack hopes to secure settlements to help the residents begin to rebuild their homes and their lives. But to Mayor Jerkins, the suit is “a waste of time” and the city is not accountable for damages.
“They need to sue God,” Jerkins said. “21 inches of rain caused the flood – we’ve done nothing wrong.”
But for residents like Otten and De Shong filing suit against the city, the financial prospect is not necessarily the driving factor. They just want answers.
“If some party somewhere was negligent they need to be brought to justice because of that,” said De Shong. “The reason we are in this problem is because nobody ever held Joe Jerkins and the city of Austell accountable.”
View Austell in a larger map
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