Supermarkets & Healthy Food Vendors
GOAL: To increase access to grocery stores and markets that sell affordable fresh fruits and vegetables, in order to improve the diets of children, reduce their body mass index (BMI) and contribute to a community’s economic development.
Supermarkets and Healthy Food Vendors
1. Attract Grocery Stores That Provide High-Quality, Healthy, Affordable Foods to Lower-Income Neighborhoods
The Issues and the Research: Eating a healthier diet that includes more fresh fruits
and vegetables helps to reduce the risk of obesity and chronic diseases.1 Unfortunately,
many communities across the United States lack access to healthy food options. One
study of white and black Americans found that adults living in areas with one or more
supermarkets were more likely to meet dietary recommendations for fruits and vegetables
than adults living in areas with no supermarkets.2 In addition, research suggests that
greater access to supermarkets may be related to a reduced risk of obesity, while greater
access to convenience stores may be related to an increased risk for obesity.3,4,5,6,7 Policy-makers can incentivize supermarket chains to open stores in underserved areas, which can have a positive effect on children and their families’ health and the local economy.
Potential Stakeholders
Policy-makers
State and local elected and appointed officials
Other Government and Community Stakeholders
Local and state public health officials
Local economic or redevelopment agency officials (including zoning boards)
Supermarket industry
Nonprofits
Community members
Policy and Program Options
Food policy council
State and local government leaders can pass a resolution for a or task force that advances healthy food options and includes supermarkets.
Comprehensive plans, healthy food access
Local policy-makers can consider adding specific language to their comprehensive plans to identify grocery stores as important considerations for developing and redeveloping neighborhoods. During the review and negotiation process for planned unit developments and mixed-use development proposals within commercial zones, leaders should consider and analyze possibilities for including food retail. Furthermore, planning staff can initiate shared parking options for grocery stores and other property owners.
Financial incentives for supermarkets
State and local policy-makers can provide grants and loan programs, small business development programs and tax incentives that encourage grocery stores to locate in underserved areas.
Zoning to encourage supermarkets to move in
Local policy-makers can relax zoning requirements that make it difficult for supermarkets to move into densely populated urban and rural areas. They also can provide parking subsidies. Local zoning boards or other local officials can implement policies that ensure recently closed grocery stores can be replaced by another one as quickly as possible.
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2. Encourage Convenience Stores and Bodegas to Offer Healthier Food
The Issues and the Research: Many underserved urban and rural communities do
not have grocery stores, and many lower-income and minority residents without cars rely
on corner stores and bodegas to feed their families. Unfortunately, many of these stores
are typically able to stock and serve only unhealthy pre-packaged foods, snacks and sodas.
Two studies that examined associations between children’s diets and access to different
types of food stores8,9 found that youth who had greater access to convenience stores
consumed fewer fruits and vegetables. There also are strong links between the availability
of healthy food in neighborhood stores and residents’ diets.10,11,12,13 Three studies found that greater availability of healthy food in stores was related to greater availability of healthy food at home and increased consumption of healthy food at home.14,15,16 Providing alternative methods for lower-income communities to access healthy food through corner store development programs is one way that policy-makers can help to address the childhood obesity epidemic in their communities.
Potential Stakeholders
Policy-makers
State and local elected and appointed officials
Other Government and Community Stakeholders
Economic (re)development officials
Nonprofits
Community-based organizations
Corner store owners
Community members
Policy and Program Options
Food policy council
State and local policy-makers can pass a resolution for a or task force that advances healthy food options and includes healthy corner stores.
Incentives for healthy options
Local government officials can encourage convenience store and bodega owners to provide affordable healthy options by offering incentives.
Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and federal food assistance programs
Local policy-makers can encourage or require store owners to accept EBT cards for and benefits as a form of payment.
Marketing healthy options
Local policy-makers, government agencies and/or can consider encouraging store owners to limit the marketing of unhealthy food in corner stores that are located near schools. They also can encourage point-of-purchase shelf labeling and prompts for healthy foods.
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3. Establish Healthy Mobile Markets
The Issues and the Research: Local governments can help increase the availability
of fresh, healthy and affordable food for children and families by promoting mobile food
carts. For residents living in food deserts, mobile food carts can offer fresh produce, such
as carrots, bananas, apples and berries. Because the food choices that people make are
limited by foods that are available and convenience is an important factor that influences
healthy eating behaviors, individuals living in areas with few food choices may be more
likely to adopt an energy-dense diet. The green cart project in New York was fueled by
a Health Department study of Harlem, which determined that the community had 30
percent fewer supermarkets than the Upper East Side. In addition, only 3 percent of
corner stores in Harlem—compared with 20 percent on the Upper East Side—carried
leafy green vegetables.17 The city’s actions are compatible with research on healthy food
availability: food environments that offer a greater variety of healthy food options at
affordable prices may lead to healthier food choices.18
Potential Stakeholders
Policy-makers
State and local elected and appointed officials
Other Government and Community Stakeholders
Community-based organizations
Local farmers
Local business owners and vendors
Policy and Program Options
Food policy council
State and local policy-makers can pass a resolution for a or task force that advances healthy food options and includes mobile markets.
Provide permits/licenses and incentives
Local policy-makers can provide incentives to locate mobile markets (e.g., green carts and trucks) that offer convenient and affordable healthy food in lower-income communities with limited or no access to healthy food.
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1 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2005. Available at www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/DGA2005.pdf.
2 Morland K, Wing S and Diez Roux A. “The Contextual Effect of the Local Food Environment on Residents’ Diets: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.” American Journal of Public Health, 92(11): 1761-1768, November 2002.
3 Powell L, Auld M, Chaloupka F, et al. “Associations Between Access to Food Stores and Adolescent Body Mass Index.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 33(4S): S301-S307, September 2007.
4 Morland K, Diez Roux A and Wing S. “Supermarkets, Other Food Stores, and Obesity: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30(4): 333-339, April 2006.
5 Liu G, Wilson J, Qi R and Ying J. “Green Neighborhoods, Food Retail and Childhood Overweight: Differences by Population Density.” American Journal of Health Promotion, 21(4S): 317-325, January 2007.
6 Stafford M, Cummins S, Ellaway A, et al. “Pathways to Obesity: Identifying Local, Modifiable Determinants of Physical Activity and Diet.” Social Science and Medicine, 65(9):1882-1897, November 2007.
7 Inagami S, Cohen D, Finch B, et al. “You Are Where You Shop. Grocery store Locations, Weight, and Neighborhoods.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 31(1): 10-17, July 2006.
8 Jago R, Baranowski T, Batanowski J, et al. “Distance to Food Stores and Adolescent Male Fruit and Vegetable Consumption: Mediation Effects.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 4(1): 35, September 2007.
9 Timperio A, Ball K, Roberts R, et al. “Children’s Fruit and Vegetable Intake: Associations with the Neighborhood Food Environment.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 46(4): 331-335, April 2008.
10 Bodor J, Rose D, Farley T, et al. “Neighborhood Fruit and Vegetable Availability and Consumption: The Role of Small Food Stores in an Urban Environment.” Public Health Nutrition, 11(4): 413-420, April 2008.
11 Cheadle A, Psaty B, Curry S, et al. “Community-level Comparisons Between the Grocery Store Environment and Individual Dietary Practices.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 20(2): 250-261, March 1991.
12 Edmonds J, Baranowski T, Baranowski J, et al. “Ecological and Socioeconomic Correlates of Fruit, Juice, and Vegetable Consumption Among African-American Boys.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(6): 476-481, June 2001.
13 Fisher B and Stogatz D. “Community Measures of Low-Fat Milk Consumptions: Comparing Store Shelves with Households.” American Journal of Public Health, 89(2): 235-237, February 1999.
14 Bodor J, Rose D, Farley T, et al. “Neighborhood Fruit and Vegetable Availability and Consumption: The Role of Small Food Stores in an Urban Environment.” Public Health Nutrition, 11(4): 413-420, April 2008.
15 Cheadle et al.
16 Fisher and Stogatz.
17 Gordon C, Ghai N, Purciel M, et al. Eating Well in Harlem: How Available Is Healthy Food? New York: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2007. Available at www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/dpho/dpho-harlem-report2007.pdf.
18 Morland et al. “Supermarkets, Other Food Stores, and Obesity.”
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