Could Chicago Food Deserts Soon Get More Grocery Stores? State Program Aims To Give Away Millions (2024)

FAQs

Could Chicago Food Deserts Soon Get More Grocery Stores? State Program Aims To Give Away Millions? ›

The New Stores in Food Deserts Program will offer grants ranging from $160,000 to $2.4 million to grocers who build grocery stores in food deserts identified by the United States Department of Agriculture. Governor JB Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton joined food justice leaders Tuesday to announce the program.

Grocery store owners avoid opening up shop in food deserts because market research suggests more affluent areas are more profitable. Some common characteristics across food deserts—smaller populations, lower rates of employment, higher rates of poverty—are the same characteristics that scare off retailers.

Community-based solutions to improve access to affordable, healthy foods in food deserts include local markets, community gardens, surplus food sharing programs, federal food assistance programs, and food pantries.

Answer. People living in food deserts hope grocery stores will be built in their neighborhoods in order to assure the Availability and Better choices of the items.

A longstanding pattern of disinvestment in the South and West sides has created “inequitable access to food retail across Chicago,” Johnson said in a statement. “All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options.”

An area is considered a “food desert” when 33% of a census tract (or at least 500 residents in that tract) do not live within one mile of a large grocery store or supermarket. This circ*mstance can mean residents lack access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and other healthy foodstuffs.

Definition: A tract with at least 500 people, or 33 percent of the population, living more than one-half mile (urban areas) or 10 miles (rural areas) from the nearest supermarket, supercenter, or large grocery store.

What Causes Food Deserts in Urban Areas? Low-income areas are faced with a lack of food options for a number of reasons, many of which stem from discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

In the U.S., food deserts are a result of efforts to segregate U.S. cities into predominantly Black and predominantly white neighborhoods through federal urban planning and housing policies. However, there are many different causes of food deserts, summarized below.

Who most likely lives in a food desert? ›

Relative to all other census tracts, food desert tracts tend to have smaller populations, higher rates of abandoned or vacant homes, and residents who have lower levels of education, lower incomes, and higher unemployment.

Answer: Food deserts can be eliminated by making nutritious food accessible and affordable. Food Deserts can be over come by establishing restaurants and grocery stores that offer healthy options. Eliminating food deserts can help fight childhood obesity.

Chicago is the food and drink capital of the world, according to a global survey. Our suspicions have been confirmed: Chicago is the No. 1 city in the world for both eating and drinking, according to the Time Out Index, an exhaustive survey that polled more than 34,000 people in 48 cities around the globe.

Across Chicago's 70+ communities, there are estimated to be more than 500,000 people facing hunger and food insecurity.

The closures have created a food desert for some Chicagoans. That's an area where one third of the people live at least 0.5 miles from the nearest grocery store. Parts of West Englewood, Austin and South Shore are examples.

Without access to healthful foods, people living in food deserts may be at higher risk of diet-related conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and micro-nutrient deficiencies.

Food deserts can be described as geographic areas where residents' access to affordable, healthy food options (especially fresh fruits and vegetables) is restricted or nonexistent due to the absence of grocery stores within convenient traveling distance.

A food desert is an area that has limited access to affordable and nutritious food. In contrast, an area with greater access to supermarkets and vegetable shops with fresh foods may be called a food oasis.

Food deserts are also connected to “supermarket redlining,” which defined by the National Institutes of Health, is a term used to describe major chain supermarkets' disinterest in building store locations in inner cities or low-income neighborhoods and usually pulling their existing stores out and relocating them to ...