Posted on 11/08/2010 4:53:13 AM PST by IbJensen
First Lady Michelle Obama has called on Congress to create a $400 million-a-year program to encourage the establishment of supermarkets in places she calls “food deserts.”
The situation in these “food deserts,” as Mrs. Obama describes it, is quite dire indeed. American children are growing fat because their parents cannot get to a supermarket—to buy fruits and vegetables—without undergoing the hardship of boarding a bus or riding a taxi. As a consequence, food-desert-dwelling children are forced to eat fast food and junk procured at chain restaurants and convenience stores.
In a March 10 speech, the first lady painted a sad picture of their plight. “Right now, 23.5 million Americans, including 6.5 million kids, live in what we call ‘food deserts’—these are areas without a supermarket,” she explained. “And as a result these families wind up buying their groceries at the local gas station or convenience store, places that offer few, if any, healthy options.”
She offered a solution. “Let’s move to ensure that all families have access to healthy, affordable foods in their community,” she said. “(W)e’ve set an ambitious goal here: to eliminate food deserts in America within seven years.
“To do that,” she said, “we’re creating a Healthy Food Financing Initiative that’s going to invest $400 million a year—and leverage hundreds of millions more from the private sector—to bring grocery stores to underserved areas and help places like convenience stores carry healthier options.”
Pushing this $400 million food-desert-eradication plan became a standard part of Mrs. Obama’s stump speech.
In February, she promoted it in a Philadelphia neighborhood she said had just emerged from a 10-year period without a supermarket—thanks to subsidies from the enlightened state government of Pennsylvania.
“For 10 years, folks had to buy their groceries at places like convenience stores and gas stations, where usually they don’t have a whole lot of fresh food, if any, to choose from,” said Mrs. Obama. “So that means if a mom wanted to buy a head of lettuce to make a salad in this community, or have some fresh fruit for their kids’ lunch, that means she would have to get on a bus, navigate public transportation with the big bags of groceries, probably more than one time a week, or, worse yet, pay for a taxicab ride to get some other supermarket in another community, just to feed her kids.”
Congress left town for the November election without having approved any fiscal 2011 spending bill. So, as of yet, it is uncertain whether Mrs. Obama will get her $400 million-per-year to subsidize supermarkets in “food deserts.” The agricultural bill that has been working its way through Congress includes only a $40 million earmark for the program.
But does it deserve a single penny?
In the 2008 farm bill, Congress mandated that the department conduct a $500,000 study of “food deserts.” The study—“Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences”—was published in June 2009.
The report demonstrates that Mrs. Obama’s depiction of American “food deserts” is fatuous at best. Lower-income Americans live closer to supermarkets than higher-income Americans.
“Overall, median distance to the nearest supermarket is 0.85 miles,” said the Agriculture Department report. “Median distance for low-income individuals is about 0.1 of a mile less than for those with higher income, and a greater share of low-income individuals (61.8 percent) have high or medium access to supermarkets than those with higher income (56.1 percent).”
There are 23.5 million people who live in “low income” areas that are more than a mile from the nearest supermarket. But more than half of these people are not low-income, and almost everyone in these areas--93.3 percent—drive their cars to the supermarket. On average, they spend 4.5 minutes more than the typical American traveling to the supermarket.
“Area-based measures of access show that 23.5 million people live in low-income areas (areas where more than 40 percent of the population has income at or below 200 percent of federal poverty thresholds) that are more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store,” said the report. “However, not all of these 23.5 million people have low income.
“If estimates are restricted to consider only low-income people in low-income areas, then 11.5 million people, or 4.1 percent of the total U.S. population, live in low-income areas more than 1 mile from a supermarket or large grocery store,” it says. “Data on time use and travel mode show that people living in low-income areas with limited access spend significantly more time (19.5 minutes) traveling to a grocery store than the national average (15 minutes).
“However,” says the report, “93 percent of those who live in low-income areas with limited access traveled to the grocery store in a vehicle they or another household member drove.”
Only 0.1 percent—one-tenth of one percent—of Americans living in low-income areas more than 1 mile from a supermarket took public transit to the store, the report said.
For them, Mrs. Obama would create a new $400 million entitlement.
I love the part about it being such a “hardship” to get on a bus to shop for decent food for your kids. This country has so infantilized some minorities, it is beyond belief. Here is a clue: Don't have bastard kids by multiple sperm donors when you can't even take care of yourself.
Mrs. Obama....we aren't buying what you are selling. Oh, and btw, from the looks of your caboose, you must live in a “food desert”.
Because they don’t want to be forced to allow the unions to control the stores, that and pay what the Aldermen feel is a living wage. When they did build one close to downtown I forget how many tens of thousands of applications they had filled out, people stood in line for hours for one of their “low paying” jobs. But don’t fear, Mayor Rahm will wave his magic wand and make things all better in a few months... /s
Yep.
I was checking out in the grocery store the other day behind a mid-20s aged couple, both very overweight, with two chubby kids in tow. They had 2 HUGE overflowing carts full of all kinds of prepared and packaged food (name brands, of course) including expensive steaks and sugary drinks. Much of this food I wouldn't often buy for myself because of the expense and content.
You guessed it. They paid with a food stamps *credit card*. They asked the checker if they could buy "anything" with the food stamps. She said, "Yep, no limit"! And apparently there really wasn't, as the bill was well over two hundred dollars - and they had other items besides food.
It was more food than our own family could or would eat in two months.
Strangely enough, I didn't see any fresh vegetables or fruit. I suspect they also had a rather large pickup truck or car to carry all the stuff home to their Section 8 digs...
In the Los Angeles area, lots of Korean immigrants take huge risks (financial and personal safety) to open up small liquor/mini marts in places where the chain grocers have been forced out. Yes, that's right: Forced out.
These shop owners are rather despised by the “community”.
I shall never understand how the left thinks it does certain minorities a favor by treating them as little, helpless babies.
Oh, and I understand that the Korean’s are getting out of this game as the “community” is driving them out as they did with the chain grocers.
We moved to Long Island in the early 50’s, none of the Moms drove and there were few supermarkets, mostly small little markets. If my Mom wanted groceries she walked with her cart or I rode my bike to pick up what she needed. Gee, we somehow survived and got plenty of exercise to boot.
Just another government power grab IMO
money grab more like it...let her mail out tomatoes from her garden
Exactly!!
Another thought: If the Obamas are so impressed with the European lifestyle...then why don’t they understand that the majority of people walk a lot more than a mile or two every day? The French eat a lot of fat in their diet...but the walking is what accounts for a slimmer physique.
What’s wrong with people eating frozen or canned fruits I wonder? Fresh is not always the best in terms of nutrition. And my apples last a long time when kept in the fridge...
I lost a job back in 67 because of race riots in Newark,NJ...was a dairy/frozen food manager after I graduated HS....was making real money just had turned 19 and poof..the national known “grocery” store abandon ship at that location and shortly there after....the government got interested in my capabilities...*smiles*...but I beat that too. I enlisted.
Good point! But in reality the convenience stores and even the sidewalk vendors in neighborhoods where people like to eat fresh vegetables and foods like that have them for sale. The store owners stock and sell what their customers want. If you go to a poor neighborhood in any US city that is populated by Asians, you'll find all kinds of vegetables, rice, and fresh meat and fish readily available. You can buy them cooked, or farm fresh right from the crates. Around here you can even pick out the chicken while it is still clucking.
In most Hispanic neighborhoods, poor or not, you can buy plantains, yucca, and other fresh vegetables in the local convenience store, along with beans, rice, etc. And eat a variety of dishes at the local restaurants, many with a healthy mix of vegetables, beans, etc.
What people eat is really determined by the cultural background, not their income level, or minority group membership. From my own experience I know that poor recent immigrants from Haiti and Jamaica aren't sitting around eating hot dogs, fast food, or pizza. The diets decried by our First Lady are an American cultural tradition. Rich or poor, Americans like hamburgers, barbecue, fried chicken, pie, donuts, etc.
Encouraging Americans to eat a more healthy diet is a good thing - the cultural food traditions of a large part of our country aren't necessarily the best for you health wise. But they sure are good, and the idea that people eat hamburgers and fast food because there isn't a supermarket nearby is nonsense.
Oh my! As our fearless leader says “Don’t everybody get all wee-weed up!” This is merely a “Community Reinvestment Act” for food! And we all know how well the CRA worked - why just look at all of the poor people who own McMansions! And, just like the CRA, the responsible hard-working taxpayers who subsidize it (along with Section 8 housing assistance), will also pay billions of your money to eliminate “Food Deserts.” So, along with Medicaid, the CRA & Section 8, food subsidies, fuel oil subsidies, transportation subsidies, and education subsidies, we now have supermarket subsidies. Nothing new here.
LOL
Absolutely! I hope the $400 mil includes money for security for the stores and for escorting the people too and from them so they won't get mugged and their money and veggies stolen.
Historically, before 2000, the US and Europe equated Conservatives as blue and liberals as red...Europe still does....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_states_and_blue_states
Its obvious why the liberal MSM had to change it as communists were always referred to as Reds...It was too obvious!...lol
thanks for the info
and of course the reds in the media didn’t want their commie friends in the dem party appearing red on the media maps
I’ll get you an autographed photo to hang over your bed, driftwood.
There were solutions but people depending on the gummint to do everything meant that nothing was done at all. and there it is...
bingo...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.