Carolyn Carney
The Neighborhood Grocery Store
A few years ago I enjoyed a simple, but remarkable summer dinner while on vacation at my friend’s family’s lake house in upstate New York. It was August. And in our part of the world, almost nothing is better in late August than sweet corn on the cob and beefsteak tomatoes. Just thinking about it now makes my mouth water. We found both at a nearby farmer’s market stocked with local corn and tomatoes and other wonderfully delectable produce. I don’t remember anything else we had for dinner that night, because all I ate was the corn and the tomatoes, with bits of juice, seed and corn pieces running down the corners of my mouth. The word “delicious” somehow does not even do the meal justice.
For many, one of the delights of summer is shopping at farmer’s markets and bringing home boxes of fresh, local produce and stuffing the refrigerator full of things in varying, non-uniform shapes in shades of yellow, red, green and purple. There is a huge taste difference between biting into a locally grown peach and one picked a week ago half way across the country and shipped to my grocery store. But there is a problem – an injustice – when it comes to fresh fruit and vegetables that those who shop in mega-supermarkets and who have access to farmer’s markets often don’t realize. Fresh food is often not available in poorer urban neighborhoods or rural communities.
Last summer, while shopping in a local grocery store in the South Bronx during an urban project, as I walked through the produce aisle (one of only a total of five in the store) I did not hear that canned rumble of thunder and the spray of rain moistening the fruit and vegetables. Nor did I see the bright and luscious colors one sees in a farmer’s market. And in places in the store I was nearly overcome with quite a stale, unpleasant odor. The fruit and vegetables were bruised, shriveled, dull and overall, not very appealing. At first, it gave me the impression that the store manager was ill-suited for the job, that he or she was not doing a good job of keeping the store clean or of moving his stock. But then some other things occurred to me…
- I owned a car and could drive to a bigger, better mega-market or a farmer’s market.
- Most poor urban dwellers must rely on getting their food on foot or by mass transit: no “loading up” the trunk on a big shop and some money that could be spent on food is spent on transportation.
- The poor have fewer choices of where to shop and often have to pay higher prices in independently run small groceries or bodegas.
- Small grocery stores don’t have the access to wholesale fresh produce and so the selection they offer is smaller and pricier.
In a 1993 study in Eastern Pennsylvania, researchers found that the average full-service supermarket offered 19 kinds of fruit, 29 kinds of vegetables, and 18 kinds of meat, while the average small store only carried 6 kinds of fruit, 5 kinds of vegetables, and 2 kinds of meat. The study also showed that the produce and other foods offered in smaller stores were often lower in quality. (Hoats K. The Cost of Being Poor in the City: A Comparison of Cost and Availability of Food in the Lehigh Valley. Lehigh, Pa: Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley; 1993 – taken from website of Prevention Institute for the Center for Health Improvement (CHI))
In the 50s and 60s, when suburbia was birthed by the exodus of the white middle-class from the city, supermarkets followed the money trail, abandoning their urban confines. Small independent grocery stores rose up, but have less variety and must charge more in order to keep up with the high rent. Further, since fresh healthy food is less available in these small stores and corner bodegas, shelves are stocked with processed, high fructose-corn syrup enriched, high, fat foods. Thus, there is little surprise when there are high incidences of obesity and diabetes amongst the urban poor. Being fat in the developing world is sometimes a sign of prosperity and health. But in the West, it can be a sign of urban poverty.
The evidence of unhealthy, urban consumption spills out onto my front stoop every so often. On the other side of my blue-collar street and a few doors away is a corner bodega. I don’t know if this is the culprit, I am using an educated guess here, but when I take my broom and dust pan out to sweep my front stoop and sidewalk I am constantly finding discarded wrappers from chips, pork rinds, Little Debbies, all sorts of candies, and those little plastic jug containers of sickeningly sweet colored drinks. These are often what I see kids eating after school or sometimes, on their way to school. And if that is not enough, I have heard a Mister Softie ice cream truck come on my street as early as ten in the morning and as late as 11:30 at night, for up to nine times in a day. If money is spent on these easily-accessible unhealthy items, what is left to travel out of the neighborhood to buy something healthy and fresh?
What is the solution? Should I feel guilty now, when I buy fresh vegetables, because of the have-nots? No, but knowing that there is an inequality in food choice is a start. Making careful choices so as to not discard food or let it spoil is a good next step.
Some may do further research in public policy to transform the system, like a group in Rochester, NY where the mayor worked with a local non-profit citizens’ group to bring large retail supermarket chains back into the city. (This is detailed in the aforementioned website.) Still others have been involved in food co-ops and community gardens.
And it might even be nice to invite some neighbors over for fresh sweet corn and tomatoes on a summer’s evening to enjoy the fruits of God’s creation in deep thankfulness, while praying for a solution to this injustice.
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