Will Philadelphia’s experiment in eradicating ‘food deserts’ work?

Washington Post ^ | June 8, 2012 | Sarah Kliff

[grundle]

Philadelphia has the highest obesity rate and poorest population of America’s big cities. It also has an ambitious plan — launched out of 632 corner stores — to put healthy food on every table.

The $900,000 investment in better health depends on apples and oranges, chips and candy, $1,200 fridges and green plastic baskets. The results could steer the course of American food policy.

Philadelphia is trying to turn corner stores into greengrocers. For a small shop, it’s a risky business proposition. Vegetables have a limited shelf life, so a store owner must know how much will sell quickly — or watch profits rot away. He also lacks the buying power of large supermarkets and is often unable to meet the minimum orders required by the cheaper wholesalers that grocery stores use.

With shelf space at a premium, shop owners must pick and choose the products they think will sell best. Chips and candy and soda are a sure bet. Eggplant? It’s hard to know.

[pops88]

When I’ve seen people using EBT cards in the grocery store, I’m pretty sure I never saw one vegetable. The lunacy of the left marches on.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The reason the "food deserts" exist is because the denizens of the "desert" neighborhoods drove the grocery stores out with shoplifting and outright robbery.

Any stores run by the gubmint are going to be a financial and tactical failure.

But it's the thought that counts. </sarcasm>

[Sir Napsalot]

>>> Will Philadelphia’s experiment in eradicating ‘food deserts’ work?

Nope. But someones (wink wink) will get a tidy sum from Michelle O’s ‘stash’ (30 mil).

As usual taxpayers are the suckers.

[BitWielder1]

Prohibit junk food for food stamps and EBT cards, leave all other customers alone.

[Vigilanteman]

This experiment will last until the subsidy money is gone. The problem with food outlets in Philadelphia, like any other inner city, is mainly the gangbangers which rob them and the miscreants which shoplift them.

The only people who tend to make it in this type of environment run limited convenience size stores with higher prices, limited selection and armed employees.

[Bob]

From the linked article:

You have people who buy what they want to buy.

Well, we'll just have to put a stop to that silly concept.

[BenLurkin]

The results could steer the course of American food policy.

Whether it works or not!

[shibumi]

"The results could steer the course of American food policy."

"America" has no damn business having a "food policy."

People on public assistance of any kind should only be allowed to buy staples. (Bread, milk, meat, flour, eggs, etc.)

Apart from that, the government has no role in deciding what we eat.

Or Drink.

"I'll have a Slurpee. Make it the Bloomberg Special!"

[Red_Devil 232]

“The $900,000 investment in better health depends on apples and oranges, chips and candy, $1,200 fridges and green plastic baskets.”

They forgot to mention the steel grates for the doors and windows and a shotgun behind each checkout counter.

[Our man in washington]

Philadelphia is filled with transitional neighborhoods. Maybe someone could do a study of whether poor people who live on the fringes of wealthier neighborhoods have better eating habits. After all, if they crave fruits and vegetables, they could just walk a few blocks into the richer neighborhood and buy them. There’s no wall with guards between University City and West Philadelphia, or between the poorer and more upper-crust sections of Germantown.

Of course, nobody would do such a test since the results would almost certainly show what conservatives suspect.

[The Great RJ]

The simplest way to fix the problem would be ban the purchase of junk food with EBT cards. We already do this with the WIC program which restricts purchases to healthy foods and baby food and formula. Every time I see an EBT purchase in the grocery store it is for pop, chips, snack foods and occasionally T-bone steak and crab legs.

[Lurker]

The last time I saw anyone buying a fruit with an EBT she had just paid for two cases of Corona with a brand new $100 bill. She bought 6 limes with the SNAP card.

I damn near burst into flames whe I saw it. It’s the only time I ever said anything.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Chips and candy and soda are a sure bet. Eggplant? It’s hard to know.

Nah, it’s easy to know. Waddling fat inner-city Philly “sons and daughters of Obama” DO NOT eat eggplant.

Smoke it, maybe.

[mick]

I live near Philly. Every week or so I go down to the Italian market on 9th street. I get fresh jumbo eggs for 1.65 a doz. I get fresh veggies and fruit way cheaper than at the fancy grocery stores in the suburbs. And most of the customers are locals who live nearby in poor neighborhoods. This market is in the middle of a lower to poor neighborhood. It’s a myth that poor people can’t buy good food at cheap prices. At least in Philly.

[Nervous Tick]

>> Every time I see an EBT purchase in the grocery store it is for pop, chips, snack foods and occasionally T-bone steak and crab legs.

Soon, EBT cards will be usable in restaurants.

Hide and watch.

[ProudFossil]

Do you think McDonald’s would sell that for a dollar?

[Bob]

Soon, EBT cards will be usable in restaurants.

Don't look now but, if I'm not mistaken, they already are.

[bert]

Yet another reason to stay from the hellhole thAt is Philadelphia

[BfloGuy]

People on public assistance of any kind should only be allowed to buy staples. (Bread, milk, meat, flour, eggs, etc.)

Um, you left out arugula, but I do agree.

To the extent that food "deserts" exist in the U.S., it is a result of the inhabitants not wanting to buy fruit and vegetables. When I lived in downtown Buffalo, the corner Yemeni grocer would stock whatever he could sell.

Fresh produce didn't figure in the mix and these do-gooders know it.