A serious problem, and a simple solution (produce trucks)

[NotUrsula]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009...adStoriesAreaMain;cbsnewsLeadStoriesHeadlines

There is a story on CBSNews.com today about a business in Detroit that sends refrigerated trucks into city neighborhoods to sell produce. The program is getting aid from a state grant. My reaction as I read it was -- what the heck took people so long to think of this?

According to the story, the City of Detroit no longer has ANY real supermarkets selling fresh food. I'm a city person myself, and I've seen supermarket-chain redlining firsthand, but I didn't realize that Detroit had a problem of quite that magnitude. It's pretty hard to eat decent food when it takes two hours on the bus one-way just to get to the nearest real grocery store. (And there are neighborhoods in my city that have the same problem, but it isn't that way everywhere in the city, thank goodness.)

We ask all the time what can be done to help Americans eat better, when something this simple can go such a long way. What is old is new again -- at the turn of the century the greengrocer's wagon did just this; rolling down city streets to sell produce. Now if we can just get the butcher and the baker and the dairy to do it, too, maybe we'll make some progress. Store chains say that they won't build in inner cities because of the insurance cost, the vandalism, the shoplifting, and the robberies -- using a truck solves a lot of those problems. So would temporary farmer's markets protected by police presence.

Thank goodness for people who think outside the box.

 

[luvmy3]

My thought is that a gov't grant given to clean up the inner city to bring in a grocery store chain is more effective for the long run. Whats going to happen to this when the money runs out?

 

[NotUrsula]

I think that the grant money may have been used to buy the trucks. If that is the case then I would think that they will keep selling as long as they are road-worthy.

The problem with building brick and mortar grocery stores is that the chains often cannot insure them and cannot make a profit after shrinkage; at least that is what the major chains around here say is their reasoning. Since most of the vandalism and theft happens at night, driving the trucks out of the neigborhood after business hours largely defeats the problem.

 

[luvmy3]

I think that the grant money may have been used to buy the trucks. If that is the case then I would think that they will keep selling as long as they are road-worthy.

The problem with building brick and mortar grocery stores is that the chains often cannot insure them and cannot make a profit after shrinkage; at least that is what the major chains around here say is their reasoning. Since most of the vandalism and theft happens at night, driving the trucks out of the neigborhood after business hours largely defeats the problem.

Okay, I was thinking the money was going towards the cost of the food.
Although I think its great that someone does this for them but I just don't see it as a cure for the problem. If there are no grocery stores, where do these people get the rest of their foo and grocery products?

 

[NotUrsula]

Liquor stores, mostly, or little bodegas that have three or four shelves of canned goods. Maybe a Walgreens, but those tend to be more of a trek. When you live in the inner city and don't have a car, your access to groceries of any kind tends to be limited -- that's what makes the redlining problem so serious.

 

[mamacatnv]

My DD and I watched this on the news last night - amazing the difference it has made. It also showed the community garden that they hope to expand and be able to provide more fresh veggies to the community.
They also work with the "system" and accept the foodstamp cards which I think in and of itself is a huge reason the program is so successful.