Posted on 05/14/2010 4:19:46 PM PDT by Libloather
First lady’s plan targets ‘food deserts’
posted by Landon Hall
May 13th, 2010, 7:42 am
No, not food “desserts.” That’s the way I first read it, too. Michelle Obama isn’t trying to take away our pie and ice cream.
We’re talking “deserts,” places across America where people don’t have easy access to basic, healthy foods like fresh vegetables. The first lady’s Childhood Obesity Task Force report, released earlier this week, says 23 million people live in low-income urban or rural areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket.
As a county somewhere in between urban and rural, O.C. doesn’t have this problem to the extent that surrounding counties have, but it does exist, says Dr. Patricia Riba, founder and medical director of the Children’s Wellness Program with the Coalition of Community Clinics. One such place is the Oak View neighborhood of Huntington Beach, a diverse one-square-mile area where Riba and her friends are trying to get a farmer’s market going.
Riba says she drove the neighborhood looking for healthy-food purveyors and found surprisingly few. There were plenty of food trucks, however, selling mostly junk food. “Some of these trucks do sell healthy foods, like peppers, but you have to dig for it,” Riba said. It’s easy to see, she says, how a mother with no car trying to keep track of three or four kids would rely these mobile vendors as the first option for meals or snacks.
A key element of the first lady’s “road map” to drastically reducing childhood obesity is a program called the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Under the Obama administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011, $400 million would be spent on providing “innovative financing” to grocery stores to expand into low-income areas. The money also would be used to help smaller stores like bodegas and convenience stores stock healthier foods, as well as bring more farmer’s markets to underserved areas.
Some seed money is just what the people in Oak View are trying to round up to start their farmer’s market. Iosefa Alofaituli, community director of the Oak View Renewal Partnershp, says $35,000 has been raised and another $15K is needed to get a weekly market going at Ocean View High School.
Yesterday I went to the weekly market in downtown San Juan Capistrano and got a lot for about $20. You know how puny the green onions are at the store? I got a massive bundle for one whole dollar. But this market is only open from 3 to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays. Here’s a list of certified farmer’s markets around the state, and here’s a more navigable local list.
About 17 percent of children in the U.S. are obese, and the overall rate has remained steady the past decade. But here’s a troubling trend among that stack of data: More than 10 percent of kids age 2-5 are obese. This is a demographic that doesn’t shop for its own food.
Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move!” initiative seeks to bring the overall childhood obesity rate back to 5 percent by 2030, which is where it was in the 1970s.
LOL!!!
We're about 15, but that store is smaller and more expensive. It's our "emergency only" store.
I drive about 45 minutes to get to a larger, cheaper store (We don't get food stamps, so we have to budget. We're taxpayers.)
(Overweight Michelle tracks kids - not terrorists)
That is dumb.
“It’s all well and good when the commie/socialists want to scold us about gas prices (”Do you know what they pay in Europe? You should be grateful for $4 gas!”)”
Hell, I’ve gotten that argument right here on FR.
Hey, they post here too!
Obama looks like Benson, but acts like the governor.
“23 million people live in low-income urban or rural areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket.”
So, there should be a supermarket every mile? That should be interesting.
And in “urban” areas, there’s probably a good reason for a lack of cash-laden businesses.
Good point. Many of these food “deserts” in major cities are areas in which the youth gangs have laid waste. Chain supermarkets and other businesses avoid these areas because of the conditions there.
Maybe the next step in her campaign will be to shame major supermarket chains to open supermarkets in the ghetto. Could be. Even if the stores operate at a loss, socialist thinkers would say it’s good for society to compel them to operate their stores in these areas.
Do you have Michelle's BMI?
” ..23 million people live in low-income urban or rural areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket. “
Michelle and Company pathetically attempt to conflate rural and urban areas.
Rural areas don’t have as many markets because it’s a logistical and geographical situation.
Urban areas have trouble attracting big retailers and major supermarket chains because of high crime.
Just more redistribution of wealth.
On her way to the podium let her step on a scale that cameras are trained on and let the number be broadcast on a big screen behind her. Maybe then I will listen to her advice. Until then...
That’s crazy - she looks like Tinkerbell’s extra-large & p*ssed-off goth cousin.
Exactly, a lot of people live like you do 20 miles or more from a super market.. and can be snowed in for days, even if they could get to a market far away..
“Do you have Michelle’s BMI?”
No but it is likely higher than her IQ.
Exactly
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why they need $50K to start a Farmer’s Market at that High School. Doesn’t it have a parking lot? Advertise for farmers to come and sell on this date at that time; put out some inexpensive flyers and get the local radio and TV stations to do public service announcements, get the local paper to run a story. There you have your farmer’s market!
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