For many inner-city neighborhoods, access to fresh produce is difficult if not impossible because there are no supermarkets. Farmers' markets attempt to fill the gap, but they're not as convenient as supermarkets. (Photo by Pat Blochowiak)
The loss of supermarkets in cities from L.A. to Detroit to New
York has left many people without access to fresh fruits and
vegetables. In some places, farmers’ markets are helping to fill the
void. But Julie Grant reports that there are still a lot of
barriers to finding healthy food in many inner cities:
Transcript
The loss of supermarkets in cities from L.A. to Detroit to New
York has left many people without access to fresh fruits and
vegetables. In some places, farmers’ markets are helping to fill the
void. But Julie Grant reports that there are still a lot of
barriers to finding healthy food in many inner cities:
When family physician Patricia Blochowiak moved to this
neighborhood six years ago, she didn’t anticipate a problem
finding fresh foods:
“I had thought that since I had a grocery store within walking
distance of my house that I’d be able to get my groceries there.
And it isn’t the case.”
Blochowiak is afraid she’d be sued if she said what she really
thinks about the quality of fruits and vegetables in her
neighborhood grocery store.
JG:”You don’t want to say what you thought? You’re shaking your head no.”
“No.”
So the neighborhood doctor started driving to a nearby farm
market to buy her vegetables. The market building has been on
this corner for 75 years in East Cleveland. This area was once
home to millionaires and to the world’s first industrial park.
These days much of it looks dilapidated, abandoned. But
Blochowiak says she can get free-range eggs, cauliflower from the
next county over, and apples from third generation family
farmers. It’s great for her. But she says a lot of other people
can’t get here:
“It’s very disappointing. You really see first-hand, that those of us
with cars, we can get where we want to go. But those without
cars have a difficult time. So you have to take several buses, or
you have to find a friend who can drive you, or you have to walk
long distances, and for people with a lot of small children, for the
elderly, it just doesn’t work.”
Dr. Blochowiak is president of the Cleveland Academy of Family
Physicians. She says people, especially children, need fresh
foods to perform at their best. But like in inner-cities across
the nation, it’s tough to find and buy fresh fruits and
vegetables.
Even here, at her farm market, farmers can only provide
vegetables in certain seasons. Walking by the market,
Blochowiak runs into an old friend. William Muhammad tries to provide produce year-round:
“Yeah, it is difficult. It’s very difficult to get produce.
Normally, I always have a stand in the wintertime. I have pies
now, but I always have another stand in the winter with produce.”
In the off-season, Muhammed buys produce from a wholesaler and
sells it here at the farm market. But as more retail groceries
close, the wholesalers are also closing:
“It’s difficult to get anything. All you can do is buy where you
can. It’s too difficult for me.”
Grant: “So what do you do?”
“Right now, I don’t know what to do yet. Next month, I’ll see
what I could work up.”
One thing they’re trying to do near the farm market is grow their
own food. Blochowiak has worked on a community garden nearby in
hopes of providing more fresh produce to the neighborhood.
But there’s concern here that such efforts are barely tipping the
scales. They’re not a dependable, accessible source of fruits
and vegetables for most people. Kevin Scheuring sells spices at
the market. He says a lot of people forego fresh fruits and
vegetables and opt for mac and cheese or canned food from the
convenience store because getting fresh food in the inner city is
such a tough row to hoe:
“Not that they wouldn’t make a better choice if it was easier.
Again, you’ve got to get on a bus with a bunch of groceries and
go really far away and haul stuff, especially in the winter. Or
you can just go – ehh – maybe tomorrow and just go down the
street and buy a can of beans or something. And call it a day.”
Scheuring says a lot people want to do better for themselves and
their families, but it’s just becoming too difficult to get to
the few remaining places that do sell fresh food in the inner-cities.
For the Environment Report, I’m Julie Grant.