Chicago Central Food Mart, a corner store in West Humboldt Park, straddles the northern edge of an area considered one of Chicago’s “food deserts.”
The store’s faded yellow awning promises “fresh fruits, meats, and vegetables.” But until recently, little fresh produce could be found among the 99-cent sodas, chips, and canned meats packed onto the store’s shelves.
“Everybody eats fruit,” said Ray Samham, a Palestinian immigrant who has owned the store at the intersection of Chicago and Central Park Avenues since 2007 and began stocking fresh groceries last year. “Maybe a store owner don’t want to bring it in the store. But then he brings it, and people buy it.”
A nearby cooler holds tomatoes, grapes, and a smattering of other produce. This modest display of fresh food, wedged between a battery of two-liter soda bottles and a tower of flaming hot Cheetos, is a small step in a longer-range strategy by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to bring fresher, healthier food to parts of the city where it is not commonplace.
Shortly after taking office, Emanuel promised to halve the city’s so-called food deserts–neighborhoods without healthy food outlets–by the end of his first term. But in the eight months since he gathered chief executives from major grocery chains and pushed them to put stores in underserved communities, few have opened. Meanwhile, Emanuel began taking another tack: convincing the city’s corner stores, seen by some as a part of the food-desert problem, to sell fresh fruits and vegetables.
Since last summer, the city has engaged community organizers to work with 10 shopkeepers in Englewood, South Chicago, and Humboldt Park to bring healthy food into their stores. City officials hope this $250,000 “Healthy Places” pilot program, paid for by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and run by the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children, eventually will extend to other locations citywide.
Still, the program faces obstacles. After canvassing corner stores in West Humboldt Park, that neighborhood’s development council learned that many shopkeepers see carrying perishable produce as a risk.
Jo Crawford, a project manager for the West Humboldt Park Development Council, is helping Samham experiment with fresh food. “He’s guaranteed to sell potato chips, but if he invests in healthier items and they don’t sell, he’s taking a loss,” she said.
The organizers also found that some corner store owners were unsure how to procure and market fresh produce and meat.
“Frito Lay will come in on a regular basis and stock the Frito Lay shelf,” said Tom Otto, an economic-development planner with the Humboldt Park group. “The fact he has to go out and get these items has been one of the challenges.”
Price is another hurdle. Corner stores buy in such small quantities that they cannot demand discounts, and must charge premium prices to earn a profit.
“If it’s an emergency I would buy it here,” said Robert Wolf, 55, a long-time Food Mart customer dropping in to buy lunch meats and other packaged goods. “But for me to just buy normal, I would go elsewhere cause it would be cheaper.”
Other residents, who say they have no other option, are heartened that Samham has brought fresh fruits and vegetables to this neglected stretch of Chicago Avenue.
“I know a lot of elderly people and people my age that’s on my block that’s not mobile and have kids and would definitely love to be able to come and pick some greens up,” said Victoria Brinson, 28, while holding a bag of tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers.
Brianna Sandoval, who runs a similar program in Philadelphia, said the challenges facing the pilot program in Chicago are not unique. Philadelphia struggled after launching its program in 2004, but today has more than 600 shops, reaching roughly a third of the city’s corner stores, at an annual cost to the city government of about $500,000.
The program offers grocers $100 to start stocking a handful of healthy items, and, if they comply, provides training in how to buy and handle fresh food. “We tapped into this formula that really works, not just in Philadelphia but elsewhere,” Sandoval said.
In recent years, New York, San Francisco, and a half dozen other major cities have launched programs, too.
“We’ve learned from what other cities have done,” said Bechara Choucair, commissioner for the Chicago Department for Public Health, which oversees the program.
“I’m confident that we will be able to scale it up,” Choucair said. He declined to say how the Emanuel administration would pay for a citywide initiative.