Public Health in Oregon - Join The Conversation

This sounds like a great thing to put attention towards.  I wonder if markets that fill this niche can grow to be self-sustaining?  If enough folks will purchase fresh and healthy food to sustain a small and healthy market.  It’s more than putting in markets, it’s putting in markets - and teaching a new lifestyle.

Cassie- thanks for making this point. I agree that our systems of transportation can contribute or help overcome the food deserts in our communities. Our grantee the Health Equity Coalition, through our grant, held community conversations in Monroe who identified the lack of a bus line as a barrier in the community for making healthier foods available. The residents successfully advocated for a bus line and stop in that area needed provide access to the grocery store that was too far away to walk or bike. This is not only a story of what can happen through community engagement and action, but evidence that now is not the time to decrease funding in our public structures.

As Jennifer Wehunt described in the July of 2009 edition of Chicago Magazine, food deserts are “a concentrated area short on access to fresh meat and produce but flush with the packaged and fried yield of convenience stores and fast food outlets.” But could Food Deserts be more? I believe food deserts are beginning to occur in previously unexpected places.
  Many food deserts occur in poor urban neighborhoods. This was caused by the urban flight of the 1960’s and 1970’s. When many white middle class families moved from the cities to the suburbs. The grocery stores then followed. The remaining stores that could not survive were replaced by convenience stores. “High-calorie processed food replaced fresh, and a generation of poor people and minorities gained weight and developed chronic diseases,” (Casey).
  However, with the recent state of the economy, I believe food deserts are beginning to occur in places that are unexpected, such as middle class suburban neighborhoods. As the incomes of many families are taking cuts, sacrifices begin to be made. Food budgets are downsized, parents may try to find an additional job to support their family, and lastly, vehicles may be sold. Many suburban families are now being forced to sell their vehicles in order to save their homes. This means many of these families are now relying on public transportation.
  This should not be a problem, right? Lower income families have been using Trimet (in Oregon) to commute to work and grocery stores for many years. However in this case, the lower income neighborhoods are located near the bus line. In many upper middle class neighborhoods, this is not the case.
  I live in Forest Grove, OR. The neighborhood I live in is a nice, middle class neighborhood. We live only about three miles from Safeway, the closest supermarket. However, we live two miles from the last bus stop. This means that if a family lived in my neighborhood and did not own a car, thus relying upon public transportation, they would have to walk approximately two miles home with their groceries. On the other hand, the closest Plaid Pantry is only about half a mile away. This begins to constitute a food desert.
      Typically food deserts occur in low income neighborhoods in cities. However, with the current economy, many middle class families living in middle class suburban neighborhoods are being forced to downsize, and thus must use public transportation. As this occurs their neighborhoods may become food deserts.