Healthy and Unhealthy Foods

Since I was a little boy I have walked day by day through the streets of the Tenderloin. As I walked, I counted the number of corner stores I passed by and the number of people that were sick and poor. I noticed that there were no grocery stores with fresh produce. In every corner there was a store that sold a variety of chips, alcohol, frozen food and other unhealthy items.  Corner stores need to have fresh produce in order for people to have a healthier lifestyle.

In many urban areas there are few, if any stores that sell fresh produce. Stores do not sell fresh produce, making it harder for the people in those neighborhoods to live a healthier lifestyle. According to NewAmerica Media, the Tenderloin, one of many neighborhoods of San Francisco, is the city’s number one neighborhood with the most convenience stores. Each corner store sells countless unhealthy items.  Some examples include: chips, soda, alcohol, candy and frozen foods. In a poor neighborhood like the Tenderloin it is hard to find any fresh produce because chips and sodas are cheaper than fresh produce. Either the convenience stores do not sell fresh food or they are not being advertised well. According to New America Media and the San Francisco Department of Health, the ratio between healthy food retailers and unhealthy food retailers is 97:3.  This makes it harder for Tenderloin residents to live a healthier lifestyle because they cannot find the healthy retailers.  Additionally, many people in low-income communities cannot afford a car to transport their groceries from a distant, health retailer to their home. 

Grocery store companies have had a hard time making a profit in neighborhoods where people do not have a lot of money to spend on healthy food.  Storeowners do not want to open up a store in poor neighborhoods because they are not sure that they will be successful. Big companies like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Safeway do not believe that the minorities want to eat healthy food and cannot even afford to.  Data shows that produce makes a higher profit margin than alcohol and cigarettes combined. This information is according to a PBS NewsHour story out of Pennsylvania there are at least 23.5 million Americans that live without supermarkets the offer fresh produce and nutrition food. This type of situation is called a food desert, which is being called up to the attention of the president of the United States. Also PBS NewHour says that Healthy Food Financing Initiative would help distribute 125 million of food resources across the nations neighborhoods and cities. This is a health problem that is finally showing signs of change.

           

For every problem I believe there is a solution. This problem being that the convenience stores in the Tenderloin and in other poor areas may not be advertising the fresh food properly, making them lose profit.   The loss of profit makes corner storeowners provide less and less fresh produce to sell and fewer options for the residents. My solution is to teach the people that own convenience stores how to market there fresh produce better so they can offer it at a fair price and still make a profit.  Many people who live in low-income neighborhoods are used to eating chips and soda.  It is difficult for them to break their habit.  We can also educate people who eat unhealthier about the consequences caused by eating poorly.