Currents
August 2016
3
Food Deserts
F
lorida's
Healthy
Food
Financing Initiative would
give low-cost loans to nonprofit
organizations or for-profit businesses to put grocery stores in
what the federal government
calls food deserts. These are Census tracts where a percentage of
residents have little money, live
more than walking distance from
a supermarket selling fresh food,
but have no cars to drive to shop.
"The Hidden Hungry," a Sun
Sentinel report published in
December, found there were 1.6
million people living in 326 food
deserts in Miami-Dade, Broward
and Palm Beach counties. And
they were not just low-income
urban neighborhoods where residents had been living on little for
generations.
Some of South Florida's retirement communities today are in
food deserts, as seniors are more
likely to outlive their incomes, as
they grow older. A third of the
more than 240,000 South Floridians age 65 and older in food
deserts are living alone, and
about 40 percent have a disability, possibly making it difficult for
them to cook, shop and drive.
Florida's healthy food financing proposal would affect not
only the elderly but also anyone
living in a food desert.
The loans would finance new
buildings or renovations for
mom-and-pop groceries, re-purposed convenience stores, farmers markets or full-sized stores.
Large grocery chains would not
qualify for the initiative.
Loan recipients must agree to
allocate at least 30 percent of
their retail space to perishable
food like vegetables, fruit and
meats; hire local residents if possible; and accept food stamps.
''We have identified 1,064
Florida stores currently selling
cigarettes and beer that, with a
little bit of help, could be selling
fresh vegetables."
The initiative is promoting the
proposal as a job generator as
well as good for community
health; “the average 46,000square-foot grocery store could
create an estimated 110 jobs.”
Possible sites, all in food
deserts, include Belle Glade,
Miami's Liberty City neighborhood and the downtown Fort
Lauderdale Sistrunk Boulevard
area.
Community markets also
could be outlets for local growers
to distribute their produce, he
said.
Julia Koprak, senior associate
at The Food Trust, said state
healthy food financing legislation
tends to gain bipartisan support
continued on page 4 >
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