Lack of healthy foods causing health concerns

[S.Annadana]

Lack of healthy foods causing health concerns

By Chris Kenning

In most of western Louisville and parts of downtown, it's easier to buy a Twinkie than fresh broccoli. A lack of full-service supermarkets, low car ownership and an abundance of fast-food and higher-priced convenience stores are limiting access to fresh fruits and vegetables and nurturing poor eating habits. The result is jeopardizing the health of some of Louisville's poorest residents, according to two recent reports analyzing Louisville's food access. "There's a lack of equal access to healthy, wholesome, affordable food in a significant sector of the community," said Dr. Adewale Troutman, director of the Louisville Health Department. "And it's a major concern." A report by Community Farm Alliance, a food advocacy group, characterizes large portions of west Louisville and areas of eastern downtown such as Shelby Park and Smoketown as virtual "food deserts," where choices are limited, prices are higher and quality is lower, especially for fresh produce. And a Chicago food researcher commissioned by The Courier-Journal found poor access to healthy food choices in some of those same areas.

Among the findings:

West Louisville had one full-service supermarket per 25,000 residents in 2005, compared with one per 12,500 residents countywide, according to Community Farm Alliance. But one-third of west Louisville residents -- and half of east downtown residents -- do not have cars. More abundant convenience stores charged prices for food that were about 50 percent higher than in supermarkets. West Louisville and east downtown residents must travel two to five times farther on average to reach a mainstream supermarket than to reach the nearest convenience store or fast food restaurant, said Chicago food researcher Mari Gallagher, whom The Courier-Journal commissioned to study Louisville's grocery access. For many other Jefferson County residents, a trip to the newest supermarket typically isn't much farther than to a fast-food restaurant or convenience store, and may actually be closer, especially along the county's eastern and southern edges. EASIEST ACCESSResidents often choosethe convenient, available The grocery imbalances affect residents such as retiree Jessie Caldwell, who often has to make an hour-long bus trip to pick up fresh vegetables or meat. She buys only what she can carry. While she tries to eat healthy, she said for her and many others, it's often tempting to go to a more convenient mini-market or grab some fast food. "The corner stores just sell a lot of potato chips, pop and ice cream," she said. "But people are going to eat what's available." Louisville, like many inner cities wrestling with "grocery gaps," has tried to lure grocers to poor neighborhoods, with limited success. A new food-security task force, including members from the Louisville Metro Health Department, food-justice advocacy groups and city development staff, are looking for ways to close the gap, including possibly using incentives to persuade corner stores to carry more produce.

City officials also are awaiting two studies they hope will show that untapped purchasing power lies within the inner city. Advocates acknowledge that teaching people to eat healthier is part of the equation, even when it's not convenient, but they say that removing barriers to nutritious foods is crucial. "It's about individual choice, but it's also about what's available," Jennifer Clark, a coordinator of the nonprofit Active Louisville, which in part seeks to improve health in low-income areas.

THE GREAT DIVIDE
Food-access disparitieslead to unhealthy choices. Sherry Hurley had grown used to driving from her Prospect home to supermarkets with long, lush salad bars and large offerings of organic vegetables and fresh seafood. When she began working two years ago on the alliance's effort to assess residents' access to health food in east downtown and western Louisville, she began visiting markets, liquor stores, corner shops, drug stores and convenience stores from the West End to Shelby Park and Smoketown. She was surprised to find few full-scale supermarkets that offered a variety of affordable, healthy food. Smaller discount grocers generally lacked the same variety and convenience stores sold, at most, a small bin of potatoes or a few tomatoes to complement stocks of chips, beer, lottery tickets, eggs, milk and canned food. Residents told her again and again how difficult it was for those without cars to reach the supermarkets such as the Kroger on West Broadway. "It seemed so unfair," she said. City officials say the grocery gap isn't as bad as the studies indicate. They say the alliance study didn't take into account a Kroger that expanded to a new and larger location in Portland in 2006 after the city donated $500,000 in land. And it didn't include discount groceries, only superstores, natural food supermarkets and full-service supermarkets.

They also say that when any retailer selling any amount or quality of produce, dairy and meat are included, there is one grocery for every 4,393 residents in the west Louisville area, compared with one for every 5,259 residents citywide. But some take issue with the city's findings. Many of such "don't have 100 percent of USDA recommended items," said Joshua Jennings, a coordinator of the local food-security task force and a staffer at Louisville's Center for Health Equity. CONTRIBUTING FACTORSTransportation, education,affordability key issues But it's not just the shortage of full-service supermarkets, advocates say, but the combination of other socio-economic factors that make it worse, such as low rates of car ownership, less education about nutrition and less money for food or exercise programs. Gallagher, the head of Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group who analyzed nearly 1,000 Louisville food retailers, said there's no doubt that many residents in western and central Louisville live in "food imbalanced" neighborhoods where it is easier to reach a fast-food restaurant, a gas station selling food, a dollar store or convenience store than a full-service grocery.

To reach that conclusion, she calculated the average distance for local residents of each of roughly 10,000 Census blocks to "mainstream" food sellers such as full-service supermarkets and "fringe" locations such as convenience stores, gas stations in the USDA food-stamp program and dollar stores selling at least some food. "We're not saying fast food or convenience stores are bad," Gallagher said. "We're just saying people shop at places closest by, and if you are buying your food from a fringe location on a regular basis, your health and diet will suffer." That's already happening in central and western Louisville, where obesity rates last year averaged 74 percent, the highest in the city. The alliance argues that those residents deserve the same access to high-quality food as anyone. "We surveyed 250 people in the California neighborhood, and asked if there was a need for more nutritional food. Everybody was emphatic" that was the case, said Joe Schroeder, an alliance organizer. Portland resident Richard Conley, who is disabled and on a fixed income, said he rides his bicycle 20 minutes to reach Kroger, peddling back with plastic sacks of groceries draped over his handlebars. He said his home is surrounded by fast food and smaller markets that carry little produce.

"If you got it close to home, you're going to eat more" healthy foods, he said.
NATIONAL DILEMMAPaucity and perceptionsoften roots of the problem
Louisville's struggles with the grocery gap are shared by many cities, Gallagher said. A 1995 study of 21 cities by the University of Connecticut found one-third as many supermarkets in low-income areas compared with high-income areas. A 2002 Occidental College study found that supermarkets in Los Angeles County served an average of 18,600 people, while those in low-income communities served roughly 28,000 people. That same year, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine published a multi-state study showing that wealthy neighborhoods had three times as many supermarkets as low-income neighborhoods. Experts say though many supermarkets followed affluent customers to the suburbs, marketers have often underestimated urban buying power. But grocery chains have found that it took significantly more time and money to place supermarkets in urban areas because of building codes, subdivided lots and scarce land.

"You're dealing with infrastructure and zoning that can be intimidating, because the average supermarket has grown to 50,000 to 60,000 square feet -- 20 or 30 times what it was 30 years ago," said David Adler, a spokesman for The Food Trust in Philadelphia. Moreover, grocery chains say that limited store space can curtail offerings, and higher costs in stolen carts and security can be hard to sustain for a business that often survives on razor-thin profit margins. Tim McGurk, Kroger Manager of Customer Relations in Louisville, said that "if we placed another store in the West End," other Kroger stores could lose money because customers would go to the newer stores.

A TOUGH SELLFailures, poor prospectsdon't help city's push
Several years ago, Louisville businessman Kevin Arave opened a 25,000-square-foot grocery store near 16th and Jefferson. But after eight months, poor sales and financing shortfalls forced him to close. "We tried everything," Arave said. "We had a grand opening. We had the Shriners come with their small circus with camels. We had an RV with dental chairs to do free checkups." Summer Auerbach, vice president of Rainbow Blossom Natural Foods Markets, said she doubts a new branch in a lower-income area would survive because residents can't afford or aren't in the habit of buying the more expensive organic food her stores offer.