Bill Moyers & Co.: An Oasis in a Food Desert
http://vimeo.com/77630728
An Oasis in a Food Desert
October 24, 2013
Since opening last month, Americas first nonprofit grocery store is bringing fresh and affordable fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy to Chester, Pa., a community that has struggled to find healthy food options since the citys last supermarket closed in 2001.
Chester, home to 35,000 people, has been designated a food desert, a low-income area lacking easy access to healthy food, by the US government. For the residents of Chester the Fare & Square grocery store seven years in the making is a welcome relief: Its a beautiful supermarket, said employee Geraldine Carter.
The store is the brainchild of Bill Clark, the executive director of Philabundance, a nonprofit hunger relief organization. Chester has a 36 percent poverty rate and unemployment is 13 percent. Clark said at one time Chester had five grocery stores, but they all closed when the city fell on hard times after manufacturing virtually disappeared.
About half of the citys residents dont own a car making it difficult and costly to travel to a supermarket. As Clark put it: To bring a gallon of milk is a hardship if you have to use two buses to get home. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://billmoyers.com/content/an-oasis-in-a-food-desert/