"Why Grocery Stores Are Avoiding Black Neighborhoods"

[Annie]

Anyone can use home ec, not just girls. Boys eat too and it would be nice not to rely on girls or restaurants to get a bite to eat.

Of course I agree, but in that time, it was girls to home ec and boys to shop.

 

[blackforest]

Have you read the book, Toxic Charity? This is a huge premise of it. Community interventions usually don’t work unless the community itself initiates them.

I personally think that Gardening should be taught in the schools, begining with the grade schools. It would be a valuable skill for both rich and poor children, and something that even STEMC people should be able to do.

You may be on to something here. I’ve seen the victory garden concept take off better when it’s part of an existing institution. Schools are a prime example. School breakfasts and lunches don’t go nearly far enough to meet children’s nutritional needs, and kids are more likely to eat the vegetables that they themselves grew. Then the gardening education component is included.

Raised beds IMO are a huge waste of water. They look cool and you can get your soil right quicker, but tend to require much more hands on to keep them right.

Here I agree. I think they’re somewhat over-rated frankly, super expensive to set up between the lumber and soil requirements. That said, I do love a no-till approach with lots of organic materials. I’ve been doing lasagna gardening with great results.

Maybe it would have been better to give out supplies for container gardening, or for individuals to just garden in their own yard somehow.

Assuming they have a yard . . . or aren’t living in their van.

I don’t think community gardens work unless everybody is 100% honest. You need your own plot and it needs to be fenced in.

It depends. In my book on community garden, I read about one in D.C. that stays open and encourages anybody to come by and harvest. They see it as charity to the community, and there are much worse things that people could “steal” than something nutritious to eat.

I had a community garden plot in a middle class community and caught another middle class lady harvesting from it. I was pretty peeved. It may depend on the context, and the expectations should be made clear.

 

[Sarcelle]

I had a community garden plot in a middle class community and caught another middle class lady harvesting from it. I was pretty peeved. It may depend on the context, and the expectations should be made clear.

That was the advantage of my third floor balcony garden.

No one can access it, be they humans, rabbits, or deer.

Only the flying bugs.

I grew beans, tomatoes, lavender, lettuce and Swiss chard. I almost always have a bumper crop.

 

[babochka]

Ok - what American consumer lives near a grocery store – close enough to walk?
Hardly anyone, I bet. They’re usually all in a big unwalkable suburban sprawl hell.
The problem is lack of cars/ lack of public transportation.

I can walk to two grocery stores, each of them .8 miles away. I cross one major street for each one, at a traffic light with a crosswalk. No sidewalks for part of the way, but there is a frontage road on the busy street. My kids walk or ride there frequently.

 

[Jeanne_S]

This was my experience as well,50,s through 60’s . Very different times then

 

[KMC]

Regardless of the sincerity of the so-called “ruling class,” are you in favor of home voucher programs in your neighborhood the way Republicans are in favor of school vouchers? As Kamala Harris would say, yes or no? And, if the answer is no, why not?

There is a lot I don’t know about the housing voucher program. I briefly read up on it, and from what I can tell, its targeted to families such that they only spend between 30-40% of their family income on rent. In my neighborhood, I can’t see someone whose income requires a housing subsidy being able to afford where I live. First, there are homeowners association rules limiting the number of houses that can be rented. Then those that are rented have rents higher than my mortgage payment. Then, the neighborhood has an expectation that the house / property be maintained, which for a poor family would be an expense they probably could not afford. There are a lot of additional things one would need to know before a “yes or no” could be given.

 

[HollyDolly]

Well, for me, I have to drive to the store.Now there is Arlan’s a small supermarket chain out of Houston i can walk to a few blocks from my home.Now to go to HEB Grocerystore, on either FM3009 or the one on Kittyhawk in the next town over, i have to drive. Same goes for Walmart.One is up on FM3009 across IH35 from HEB.One is on Kittyhawk, and the other on Main Street in a town 2 miles from me. This is also a problem in San Antonio, mainly on the i think the south and west side of town. Some of the issue is for people who live on the outskirts of town. If you live in the city, you can take VIA the city public transportation to shop. Outside, you have to drive. So it is an issue all over the country. As far as community gardens go, they might be more of a success, if you have rich donors speak to the local churches, whether catholic or Protestant. It may be that local church leaders would be more likely to excite the neighborhood , than say some stranger.

 

[phil19034]

Ok - what American consumer lives near a grocery store – close enough to walk?
Hardly anyone, I bet. They’re usually all in a big unwalkable suburban sprawl hell.
The problem is lack of cars/ lack of public transportation.

I know of many grocery stores inside the major cities like New York City, Philadelphia, etc that can be walked to. For example: there is a Wholefoods in Center City Philadelphia, with very little car parking but plenty of bike parking and on a bus route…

 

[Glennon_P]

Ok - what American consumer lives near a grocery store – close enough to walk?
Hardly anyone, I bet. They’re usually all in a big unwalkable suburban sprawl hell.
The problem is lack of cars/ lack of public transportation.

I live in a city with minimal public transportation. I’m in a neighborhood built in the 1920s and we have a small grocery store about half a mile away. We have a large warehouse-style store about a mile away…within walking distance but I’ve never walked there. Have walked to the neighborhood store on occasion. A neighbor rides his bike to the warehouse store pulling a cart that his kids rode in many years ago to haul his groceries home.

 

[Sarcelle]

I also have to drive to the stores.

The stores aren’t that far to bike, but roads don’t have shoulders to bike in.

Very pedestrian unfriendly too.

As if it was unAmerican to walk.

 

[blackforest]

Cities are no longer built for walkability. Those areas that do have high Walk Scores usually come with a high cost of living, at least in larger cities. I hope to see this awful trend in urban planning reverse course. In the long haul, walkable neighborhoods are better for the earth and a lot cheaper and more sustainable than planning for buses and light rails.

Today it is most common that both parents work, or there is a single parent household. This leaves little time in the day for planning and preparing meals which consist of quality food.

Having spent so many years as a stay-at-home mom, I can attest to not even that helping to cook fresh foods. The expected level of parental involvement in education has sky-rocketed since I was a kid. Cities are no longer walkable, and it’s a time-suck getting into the car for every necessary errand. My kids don’t have to be enrolled in sports, but I do feel that it helps build community, not to mention their character. I do make it a point to make home-cooked meals, even if they come from frozen vegetable packets. Sitting at the table, even if it’s just over PB&J, helps our family reconnect at the end of an exhausting day. I’m so veering off-topic, but it’s also all interconnected . . .

 

[Peeps]

Have you read the book, Toxic Charity? This is a huge premise of it. Community interventions usually don’t work unless the community itself initiates them.

Excellent book. Our diocese has endorsed it and has several times made it clear that they are working to make sure that the Catholic charitable outreaches are not “toxic.”

It’s a little book, so I encourage everyone to take an hour or so to read it.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The only difference between Nixon and Trump on this issue is that Nixon was NOT POTUS but LBJ was when the violence occurred, whereas the violence is taking place during Trump’s watch.

The much bigger difference is that the street thugs back then were against both parties. This time, they’re Dem allies.

The factories closed down during the Reagan years and many moved to states where the labor unions didn’t have as much power.

Your state is broke from paying out big union pensions the state couldn’t afford many of them unfunded. Its streets are unsafe in the big cities, it has been governed by Democrats for decades, and you blame Reagan?

Back on topic. Not all black neighborhoods are devoid of grocery stores. But they are often very different from grocery stores in white neighborhoods. The produce counters are filled with greens of various kinds. Sweet potatoes. The meat counters feature things like tails, snouts and entrails. Canned goods are often things like greens, smoked beans. Hardly any fruit. They’re just different. Hispanic stores are different from white stores too, but not as much. They’re very big on produce and it’s usually very fresh . Lots of fruit. Lots of corn products, including green corn husks to wrap things in to steam-cook. Baked goods. Various chilies and other spices peculiar to their cooking. Meat that’s “pulled” into tiny threads.

I’m not familiar with Asian stores, but they surely have products peculiar to their cooking and culture.

 

[Sarcelle]

I’m not familiar with Asian stores, but they surely have products peculiar to their cooking and culture.

Lots of seafood.

A sea otter would find it heaven on earth with the abundance of shellfish.

Lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think I would be a bit nervous about mercury in all that seafood. But that might just be a misconception on my part. But heck…once in awhile… There’s an Asian food store not far from here. Sounds like I might want to investigate.

 

[Ridgerunner]

This was my experience as well,50,s through 60’s . Very different times then

I wonder if that was true in black neighborhoods too. Probably was.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

depends. In my book on community garden, I read about one in D.C. that stays open and encourages anybody to come by and harvest. They see it as charity to the community, and there are much worse things that people could “steal” than something nutritious to eat

I guess it depends . I know a guy who was involved with one and he was of the attitude that it was better the little kids ate his lovely fruit and veg than some awful fast food . He showed them around his garden and showed them how to harvest stuff . Until one day he observed them dump it all in the trash and eat at McDonalds instead .

Free stuff is just part of the equation . The appreciation of it needs to be learned and taught . Many of today’s cuts kids are further from nature than we can imagine .

 

[Sarcelle]

I eat a lot more fish than meat and I’m fine.

No mercury poisoning yet.

 

[Cirdan_XII]

think I would be a bit nervous about mercury in all that seafood. But that might just be a misconception on my part. But heck…once in awhile… There’s an Asian food store not far from here. Sounds like I might want to investigate.

Asia is a big place and Asian food spans a broad variety of things . In my local Asian place you would struggle to find any seafood apart from rather over preserved Industrial prawns unappealingy shrink wrapped in plastic . But if it’s exotic and spicy meat marinades you are interested in you have found your crock of gold

 

[Sarcelle]

There was a TV show where a celebrity British chef, Jaime Oliver, tried to improve the diet of school kids in West Virginia. This was a town with a severe obesity problem.

He had a lot of difficulty getting the kids to like fruit and veg. The kids even had problems recognizing fruits and vegetables.