2011.07.24
Roanoke’s ‘food deserts’ are among the driest in the state
You only have to drive through the Gainsboro and Lincoln Terrace neighborhoods of Northwest Roanoke, or through Southeast along the Jamison Avenue corridor, to know they are places devoid of supermarkets.
A couple of months ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released data that confirmed what residents of those neighborhoods have long known. They live in what researchers have come to call “food deserts” – areas with concentrations of low income families, in many cases with no personal transportation, and no nearby supermarket. Food deserts aren’t exclusively urban, but frequently are.
And those who live in them, researchers confirm, suffer from high rates of diet-related disease – obesity and type 2 diabetes, for example — because of the ways they must shop.
The USDA identified nearly 200 census tracts in Virginia as food deserts. Just 29 of those are found to have 100 percent of residents with low access to a supermarket. And four of those 29 are in Roanoke, including the Gainsboro/Lincoln Terrace and Southeast.
Moreover, according to a Roanoke Times analysis of the data, the city of Roanoke is second only to Petersburg among Virginia’s urban areas
According to it’s documentation, the USDA first identified census tracts that it labeled low-income. Then, researchers determined what portion of the total population of each of those tracts lived more than a mile from a full-service supermarket in urban areas, and more than 10 miles in rural areas.
Some have questioned the USDA’s methodology, including Mari Gallagher, a Chicago-based researcher who first popularized the term “food desert” in 2006. In our story in The Roanoke Times, Gallagher points out that there is no perfect distance to a grocery store. You could live a quarter mile from a store, but if you have to cross a freeway on foot to get there, for many it may as well be 10 miles away.
Her sense is that the USDA data may underestimate the problem.
At a minimum, it does seem to confirm what is plain to the eye. Grocery chains long ago began pulling out of the urban core in favor of places that accommodate their new model: megastores surrounded by seas of asphalt along main arterial roads with easy access.
What’s left behind is a hodge-podge of neighborhood food sources that charge higher prices, from fast food to old-fashioned corner groceries to convenience stores to chain pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.
That sets up a dynamic for those who live in food deserts, which I described in an interview on pubic radio WVTF/RadioIQ: If you have to pay extra for bus fare and cab fare to grocery shop, your incentive is to shop less frequently, maybe even once a month. If you shop once a month, your incentive is to by stuff that is filling and will keep, often high-preservative stuff in cans or dehydrated noodles. You have little incentive to buy stuff like fresh produce and dairy products that won’t last in a month’s quantity. The result is a diet which, paradoxically, produces obesity in people who have less to eat.
That’s the same stuff that’s hard to find in those neighborhood stores.
So, what’s the solution? Getting mad at chain grocery stores? Asking them to open stores in places that don’t make sense for them business-wise, when they already operate on thin profit margins?
Some cities are trying to convince those neighborhood stores to sell healthier choices, like fresh produce. What about community gardens and community farmers’ markets?
Are there transportation solutions? In Roanoke, there is bus service to supermarkets from its most challenged neighborhoods. But you can’t bring two weeks worth of groceries on a bus. Is there another option?
There are independent grocers who open stores in food deserts, and chains like Save-a-lot that specialize in smaller stores in impoverished areas. Some say they are proving that small stores on and old-fashioned scale can still be profitable in the inner city.
Does government have a role? What is it? Incentives and zoning to promote development of stores in needy areas? What else?
What do you think the solution is?
I just wanted to let you all know that I was very upset after reading this article. I feel like this is a slap in the face to us hard working people. I am a single mom that can not get any type of government assistance and I struggle week from week. I only wish I could spend $260 at the grocery store every month. And for one to complain on the wait for the cab when in fact it was their fault for missing the phone call. A $20 cab ride to get your free food should not be complained about. I have to put over $53 dollars in my vehicle each week to get me to and from work and to go to the grocery store. A lot of weeks I do not have the money to even go to Kroger or Walmart to buy my groceries. As far as a food desert I don’t live with in a mile to the local grocery store, but I have to take my personal money just like they do for my transportation. I do not see my family making the front page of the Sunday paper and two more pages, because I am part of the working society. One other part that angered me was in the pictures I notice that they are wearing new name brand shoes and listening to their MP3 player or cell phone. If you can afford the other luxuries in life then complaining about not living near a grocery store is uncalled for.
Comment by Tammy — July 25, 2011 @ 11:23 am
I can’t believe the Roanoke Times printed this article and expected people to take it seriously. Was it a joke? Were readers supposed to feel sympathy for people who don’t have cars to get to the store or jobs to pay for what they buy there? It is infuriating that someone who receives free food every month would complain about having to wait for a taxi. Unbelievable. And she doesn’t work because she is depressed! I have no problem with helping those who are truly in need. My problem is with people who contribute absolutely nothing to society and drain taxpayer money only to harbor a sense of entitlement and the belief that they are “due” something.
Matt…I think you lost quite a bit of respect on Sunday. Maybe you should let more serious writers take over your duties for a while, so you can eat steak and shrimp with Ms. Detwiler. Spend some time looking at your paystubs in the meantime and remember that money was taken out of your pocket to support such nonsense.
Comment by Kari — July 26, 2011 @ 1:48 pm
No one mentions in this article that there were stores in these areas, but had to close due to vandalism and theft. Welfare was meant to be short term assistance. Now we have GENERATIONS of people who know nothing else. How sad. My parents were not wealthy, they came from coal miners and farmers – they worked hard, long days so that their children may have a better life. They would not have accepted assistance even if they could have gotten it because it was for folks worse off than them.
GET OFF YOUR BUTTS. I get up and go to work. I have a good job – but if I needed to dig ditches or sling burgers I would. Because THAT is what you are supposed to do. Not sit on your butt and wait to be taken care of by me and the other hard working people I know. If I only got to keep what gets taken from my pay to support others.
Comment by Karyn — July 28, 2011 @ 10:54 am
My first questions is does she want sympanthy? Has she tried to get a job? would be my next question. I was also a single Mom. I worked every day to support myself and my son. I did without for us to have food on the table. We did not have mp3 or cell phones. WE COULD NOT AFFORD THEM. My money went for FOOD and house expense. I didn’t have another child because i could not afford them. I could have used a lot of the services that was out there, but i didn’t. I thought some one else needed it more than me. People like this needs to get off the system and go to work. I have seen many open positions at Hardees and Wendys. If you would get a job you might have health benefits. You wouldn’t be depressed if you worked 8 hours and came home and prepared your family meals, washed clothes and spent time educating your children. Get off the system!!!!
Comment by Sharon — July 28, 2011 @ 11:07 am
I cannot believe this was on the first page of the Roanoke Times – aren’t there any news worthy stories. What nerve for her to complain, my husband is on SS, and I work for a temp agency for $11/hour, with food and utilities, rent and gas we are just barely getting by. Unbelievable this person complains abut a taxi wait. We are paying for her taxi ride, her food, her clothes, medicaid. I have no insurance and have to pay full price for prescriptions (I make $.40 to much per hour to qualify for assistance) Struggle is a way of life, when are benefits going to be spread around for the working class. Tell the lady at Lincoln Terrace to get off her butt and get a job and enter the life cycle.
Comment by Emily — August 1, 2011 @ 8:12 am
People? She didn’t volunteer this information…a reporter went out AND FOUND HER. SHE didn’t put this info out there, the REPORTER DID.
She’s not asking for your “sympanthy”. If Matt Chittum can manage to research and write this piece without dissolving into wild envy over thsi woman’s life of leisure and luxury, maybe the rest of you need to get over it.
Comment by Kristen — August 2, 2011 @ 10:38 am
I could not believe that you used three entire pages including the FRONT page on an article like this. Was she bragging or wanting sympathy? Perhaps both? I actually threw the paper down and screamed at it. I would love to get food stamps in that amount and be able to take a cab to the store. What’s next….a Kroger or Food Lion built at her request? I have to drive my very old car many miles to the store to buy what little I can afford to last a month. No food stamps for me. Steaks, shrimp, watermelon? Not at my house. A slap in the face for those that have to pay and actually drive miles to the store.
Comment by A Citizen? — August 3, 2011 @ 6:34 pm