This post is the second in a thanksgiving season series on food in Los Angeles and by application, urban areas. The first was Land of Sunshine, focusing on urban agriculture. The last will be City without Borders, about the future of food in an L.A. transformed by globalization and migration.
Former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, in his 5th inaugural address in 1989, stated that:
"Los Angeles cannot permanently exist as two cities – one amazingly prosperous, one increasingly poorer in substance and in hope."
Just a few years later, in 1992, the city erupted, drawing stark attention to this division as it manifested in race and class- and also, as it turns out, in access to food.
Seeds of Change
The work of our Center for Food & Justice traces back to efforts to rebuild neighborhoods following the civil unrest. Community based research overseen by our director Robert Gottlieb while he was at UCLA found that residents of impacted areas wanted more grocery stores in their neighborhood as by far their top priority for new retail. Decades of political and economic neglect, consolidation in the supermarket industry and other challenges facing inner cities had made it challenging to get access to healthy affordable food in many areas. The report Seeds of Change laid out an agenda to support community food security, which was part of a new national movement to expand urban food issues beyond (critical) efforts to fight hunger.
Rebuild L.A.
At the same time, L.A.’s elites were trying to figure out how to respond to the crisis. Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the 1984 Olympics, was recruited to head up Rebuild L.A., and entity that operated on the assumption that, as Ueberroth phrased it, "America doesn’t solve problems unless it’s done by the private sector." The heads of four large grocery chains held press conferences to pledge that they would establish 32 new supermarkets in low income neighborhoods. There’s a great quote from the Chairman of Vons that seemed to suggest that the chains got it:
"We concluded that there was an enormously dense population that we were not adequately serving or not serving at all. On the other hand, we realized we had been considering sites in the hinterlands with more jackrabbits than people."
Grocery Gap
Ten years after the 1992 civil disturbance and nine years after the Rebuild L.A. promises, we decided to look into whether conditions had changed. My colleague Amanda Shaffer wrote a report called The Persistence of L.A.’s Grocery Gap that found that there was only one more supermarket in the Rebuild L.A. area in 2002 than before. Turning her attention to the broader region, she found that there were 3.04 times as many supermarkets per capita in upper income zip codes as in low income zip codes; 3.17 times as many supermarkets in majority White zip codes as majority African American zip codes; and 1.69 times more supermarkets in majority White as majority Latino zip codes.
Food insecurity and obesity
This disparity was just one sign that many people were living in areas where it was difficult to access a healthy diet. Compound this with poverty, with a lack of parks and safe places to play, and lack of access to health care, and one could predict a disturbing double bind of hunger and obesity. In Los Angeles County, over 40 percent of those with incomes below the poverty line are affected by food insecurity- meaning that they cannot reliably get access to enough food to meet their nutritional needs. This number rose by 5 percent between 2003 and 2005, before our current economic downturn, so the figure is likely even more dire at present. Not surprisingly, lower income areas of the County are the hardest hit, and disparities are rising fast. In 2003, the food insecurity gap between west L.A. County and South L.A. County has doubled in two years from approximately 8 percent to 16 percent.
In 2005, one in five adults in the county were obese, with this rate expected to jump to a quarter by 2010.
Project CAFE
To get a more detailed picture of the food environment in low income neighborhoods in Los Angeles – and how it could be improved, our organization partnered with three community groups and researchers from USC to map food resources, survey stores, and come up with possible intervention and policy strategies. The effort was called Project CAFE, which stands for Community Action on Food Environments. Over a five year period, members of the Healthy School Food Coalition (active near MacArthur Park), Esperanza Community Housing Corporation (based near USC), and Blazers Youth Services Community Club (located south west of the intersection of the 10 and 110 freeways), walked the streets of their neighborhoods to map over a thousand locations where food was sold. They also did detailed surveys of the availability, price, and quality of food in 90 of the identified food stores.
The full results of the mapping and surveys are available in this report. The summary version is that fast food and corner and liquor stores are abundant and supermarkets and farmers markets are scarce. As a result, many community members end up having to shop at convenience stores that offer a very limited selection of healthy foods and charge high prices. Learning about these barriers also provided a chance to think of ways to overcome them. The partners in the project decided that priorities for improving access to healthy food in their communities included:
* Attracting more grocery stores
* Working with corner stores to offer more healthy choices
* Establishing farmers markets on school campuses
* Getting health and food access goals included in local zoning and planning rules
* Networking with other groups working on food access
The rest of this post will describe some opportunities to improve access to healthy food in low income urban areas. I’ll touch on four categories of opportunities/ targets. Places to buy food; ways to get there (transportation); places like schools and housing developments that can become hubs for healthy eating; and sharing the wealth (intersections between food and economic development).
Grocery stores
In Los Angeles the landscape of the grocery industry has been changing and is perhaps poised to diversify even further. Because of L.A.’s car culture, we’ve long been a region served primarily by large chain supermarkets rather than greengrocers or public markets. As I mentioned, consolidation among the major chains and flight from ‘inner city’ areas has been happening for decades. A bitter lock out and strike a few years back between the big unionized chains and the UFCW also shook things up and potentially weakened the market position of the dominant chains.
... and beyond
There are an increasing number of medium and large scale ethnic markets in L.A. that reflect our changing demographics; with the exception of Gigante most are non-union. For a while, it seemed like supercenters (big box stores containing what are essentially full size supermarkets and other products) would be moving into the region and undercutting the grocery chains. It hasn’t happened as quickly as expected, partially because of labor-community pressure and legislative setbacks for Wal-Mart in L.A. and Inglewood. Smaller format grocery stores provide a counter trend, and in theory hold some promise because plots of land large enough to build new full size supermarkets are scarce in urban areas . The British retailer Tesco has opened dozens of small format stores (I’ll describe them in a moment) and Wal-Mart is also exploring a small size format. Trader Joes and Whole Foods are popular in the region. Unfortunately they have so far not been creative in trying to locate in or near underserved low income areas. A final trend that has snuck up on me is that 99 cent stores are selling more fresh food. They may be the future of food retail in low income area because shoppers can buy a few cheap items multiple times a week, which fits with the buying habits of many low income, transit dependent immigrant residents of L.A.
Tesco/ Fresh & Easy
When Tesco announced that it would be opening lots of Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in southern California, our institute decided to look into the company’s European Operations and its plans here in the U.S. We were interested in how the entry of a new player would affect the grocery sector, and especially whether their small format stores would be located in ‘food desert’ areas- poor communities that lack grocery stores. We found that the company was opening stores mainly in middle income areas, but did have some locations in poorer neighborhoods. Only one or two of the first hundred sites where Fresh & Easy stores were opened or were planned were true food deserts, however. The company, which is unionized in England, decided to become non-union in the United States. They have a mixed record on environmental issues and haven’t done much to feature local food. After their initial roll out the chain has struggled somewhat. I’m not sure exactly why although I do remember a conversation with someone who lived near the Glassel Park site and said that the store reminded them of every 1970s dystopian movie they ever saw- appearing out of nowhere, self check-out, minimalist interior – so perhaps there’s something about the shopping experience that hasn’t caught on yet.
More grocery stores- the Pennsylvania plan
Whatever the mix or format of grocery stores offering a large selection of healthy items, we need to figure out ways to attract new stores to underserved areas and improve existing stores. A recent model that shows a lot of promise is the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative. The FFFI started with $30 million in state funds, meant to leverage an additional $90 million in economic development and private funding. This $120 million was made available to help start or improve food markets in areas of the state that lacked sufficient number of healthy food retail outlets. To date the initiative has invested in over 50 projects ranging from new 57,000 square feet supermarkets to improvements in a 900 square foot minimarket in Philadelphia.(Credit to the Food Trust, a great group working on food issues in Philadelphia, Penn, and nationwide, for helping create the Initiative).
More & better grocery stores- The L.A. way?
In Los Angeles there is an Alliance for Healthy & Responsible Grocery Stores that formed in response to the long strike, from concerns over the entry of Wal-Mart supercenters into the region as well as interest in attracting supermarkets to low income areas and improving existing stores. The Alliance has sponsored hearings on the health and economic costs of supermarket loss. Because members care about food quality and job quality – how stores operate as well as where they locate – they are developing a checklist of standards that could be tied to incentives for supermarkets. Under this model, stores could ‘earn points’ in three areas to get to the top of the line for public support: (1) healthy food and locating in underserved areas; (2) economic sustainability (good wages, benefits, unionized workforce, local hiring etc); (3) environmental sustainability in how stores are built and operated and where food is purchased from. The Alliance is seeking support in city government for an ordinance to advance these goals.
Corner store conversions
While most attention and policy debate have been focused on saving, attracting, and improving traditional supermarkets, there is also a movement underway to transform corner stores. As I mentioned, small corner stores, liquor stores, and convenience stores are often the only places that one can buy (non-prepared) food in many low income neighborhoods. These stores tend to have a limited selection of healthy items. They often get display racks free from distributors or junk food and beverage companies in exchange for placing snacks and soda displays in the front of their stores. So the challenge is to work with the owners to convince them to stock and feature more fruits, vegetables, lean meats etc.
Organizations interested in health have tried pilot projects to shift the mix of what is offered in small stores. These programs range from small scale efforts to bring boxes of produce to stores to $25,000 make-overs that add refrigerated cases, shift around the store layout, and conduct social marketing to convince local residents to buy healthy items. In Los Angeles there has been at least one full scale ‘corner store conversion’ of a shop owned by the uncle of a student active in the South Los Angeles Healthy Eating Active Living Collaborative. Those interested in these efforts, wherever you live, can take part in the national Healthy Corner Store Network.
Restaurants: fast food moratorium
The flip side of the lack of supermarkets in some low income neighborhoods is the super-saturation of fast food restaurants in these same areas. A study by Community Health Councils, for example, found that 73 percent of restaurants in South L.A. were fast food establishments, compared to 42 percent of restaurants in west Los Angeles. The food mapping conducted by project CAFE underscores the ubiquity of fast food. Chain and non-chain fast food restaurants and carryout restaurants accounted for 30 percent of all locations mapped (including stores), almost twice as common as full service restaurants- 17 percent of locations.
The mix of food retail in neighborhoods is more than a matter of convenience. A 2008 study by the California Center for Public Health AdvocDesigned for Disease: The Link Between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetesacy (CCPHA), the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and PolicyLink - , showed that:
"people who live near an abundance of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores compared to grocery stores and produce vendors, have a significantly higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes regardless of individual or community income."
To deal with the health consequences of the saturation of fast food in parts of Los Angeles, the L.A. City council, led by councilperson Jan Perry, recently passed a moratorium on new fast food restaurants in south Los Angeles. They followed planning code as defining fast food as "any establishment which dispenses food for consumption on or off the premises, and which has the following characteristics: a limited menu, items prepared in advance or prepared or heated quickly, no table orders and food served in disposable wrapping and containers."
As the first major effort to use zoning rules to limit fast food for health reasons (some small, boutique-y towns have done so for aesthetic or historic preservation motives), the L.A, moratorium received a lot of attention. Critics argued that it was paternalistic to take away choices from residents of one part of the city – or else that there are lots of fast food restaurants in certain areas because that’s what people living in low income areas like to eat (and that poor people are unhealthy because they choose a bad diet). The first point on choice, is of course ironic because if you’re surrounded by fast food restaurants rather than by a diverse set of places to get a meal, what choice do you have beyond that between different brands? The second argument is more pernicious, bordering on racist in some ways. Readers of Eric Sclosser’s Fast Food Nation will recall that fast food is in ways one of southern California’s gifts to the world. It was here that the drive through, fast food chain model was invented and perfected- for white working and middle class people, for suburbs as well as cities.
My own opinion is that the moratorium was an important step – but primarily as a symbolic wake up call to policy makers to change the food environment (and broader built environment) so that it is easier to live a healthier life. This will involve attracting more places to buy healthy food, improving nutrition education, empowering people to grow their own food, and increasing incomes so residents can afford healthy items. I’ve touched on some of these goals and will get to the others later in this piece.
Nutrition labeling in restaurants
One way to influence how people eat in existing restaurants (and hopefully in new, healthier establishments to come) is to let customers know what the heck is in the food that they buy. I’ve already written a somewhat snarky blog post about the new California law that chain restaurants with 20 or more locations in the state must provide nutrition labeling on menus by 2011. (The high point of that post was my discovery that an appetizer, entrée and desert at a Chilis restaurant – a single meal – could run you 5710 calories without even counting a drink). I’d like to add two local and hopeful addenda to the labeling issue. L.A. County is considering similar legislation that affect restaurants with 14 or more locations. I’m not sure if it would take affect sooner or cover some chains that wouldn’t have to comply with the state rule. Also, a study by the County’s Department of Public Health estimated that customers informed by labeling would cut their calorie intake by ten percent. This would avert 38.9 percent of the 6.75 million pound average annual weight gain in the County’s population of 5 and up. If true or anywhere near true, this makes nutrition labeling a really positive development.
Mobile food vendors
Los Angeles is home to tens of thousands of mobile food vendors ranging from taco trucks to produce trucks to three wheeled ice cream carts to people selling snacks and drinks out of grocery carts. Because they are largely unregulated and mobile, they represent a challenge and an opportunity. Los Angeles County is justly proud of it letter grade health rating for restaurants, so the unlicensed nature of many mobile vendors (often because the proprietors themselves lack immigration papers and don’t want to get involved with authorities) can be problematic in terms of enduring a safe food supply. In our work to improve food in schools we often find that mobile vendors of sweets and sodas and fried snacks wait outside campuses in such numbers that they can counter the progress being made inside school cafeterias and vending machines. Some of these vendors are the parents of students in the schools, so it’s a dilemma whether to try to work with them, inform on them, ignore them. On the other hand, because there are so few places to buy healthy affordable produce in many neighborhoods, fruit and vegetable carts and trucks can be important sources of good food.
New York City has an interesting program to encourage healthy vending called the green cart program. Food vending in NYC is more strictly regulated than in L.A., so they use the carrot of issuing 500 new cart permits a year for a two year period only to vendors who sell fruits and vegetables. A modified healthy vending program might work here in Los Angeles if it grandfathered in the existing unlicensed vendors who sell healthy items, providing them and new healthy vendors with some legal recognition.
Farmers Markets in low income communities
Farmers markets can be a tremendous resource. They are places to buy healthy, freshly and locally grown food that can be affordable when in season. They are community gathering spaces. They give residents a chance to meet farmers and reestablish urban –rural links. It would be great to have more farmers markets in areas that are underserved by supermarkets & sit down restaurants. The challenge is that the shopping habits and economic status of low income people don’t always add up to kind of spending needed to keep farmers markets afloat. Recent immigrants in Los Angeles tend to spend a few dollars at a time several times a week when they go to stores (rather than loading 100 bucks worth of groceries into a car like some suburban shoppers). So even if there is foot traffic through a market, there may not be enough purchasing to make it worth the time of farmers, some of whom could be selling at other markets. When fewer farmers show up, less people come shop, and the downward spiral can doom the market.
So how can farmers markets in low income areas survive and thrive? One strategy is to link up with community groups and institutions who can promote the market. Markets can be located in areas that people are used to visiting, such as school campuses (as long as they are not fenced off and hard to get into). Putting a market in an edge neighborhood, near both low income and middle income areas, can also pay off. Finally, creating opportunities for farmers to sell beyond the market can help sustain farmer participation. As my prior post described, farmers markets can be hubs for distribution and sales to local restaurants, to schools or hospitals, etc.
Transportation and Food
It’s a sad fact that our nation’s current food and transportation nexus exists primarily as (1) federal spending to ensure that barges laden with subsidized bulk commodities like grains can navigate down rivers to ports for export; and (2) a small hidden fee on food at supermarkets to make up for the expectation that a certain number of customers will steal or remove shopping carts because they don’t have cars and don’t have a way to get groceries (and often kids as well) back home. This is a slight exaggeration. There are a few other links- like some meals on wheels programs for vulnerable populations. But for the most part, transportation policy and spending at the local, state, and national levels ignore the essential challenge that many people lack cars and have a hard time accessing healthy affordable food in their immediate neighborhoods.
With a new transportation bill on the horizon at the federal level and opportunities for local planning, here are some ideas for incorporating food concerns into transportation priorities. Try to ensure that existing and planned transit routes stop at major food retail stores. Build healthy food retail in transit oriented developments. Reduce or eliminate minimum parking requirements for grocery stores located in dense areas (which would make it easier to locate land for new supermarkets). Encourage supermarkets to offer shuttles to customers. Design grocery stores to be more pedestrian and bike friendly. Consider local and regional food distribution needs.
Schools as healthy places to learn
I’m going to switch focus from improving food retail to making community locations into hubs for healthy food. I’ll start with schools. Our institute started working on school food in the late 1990s when we helped launch a farmers market salad bar in the Santa Monica Malibu Unified school district. We took the same approach with pilot projects in three schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Despite success there (kids eating significantly more servings of fruits and vegetables), LAUSD didn’t want to expand the program. This experience taught us three lessons. First, school food looked like a sad cafeteria version of fast food and kids were still shunning it for even junkier stuff bought from vending machines. The average lunch of a high school or middle school student was a snicker bar, flaming hot cheetos, and a coke, purchased with cash (this is important) to ‘prove’ that even kids from poor families weren’t dependent on free/ reduced price meals, what they called ‘county’ or ‘welfare’ food. Second, changing a bureaucracy like a large school system was hard – which is obvious. And third, we needed to adopt a community organizing and policy change approach because demonstrating successful pilot projects wasn’t making change happen.
Between 2002 and 2008, an organizing approach to school food and partnerships with health advocates and friendly school board members has resulted in a ban on unhealthy beverages and snacks, reformulation of cafeteria meals to go beyond federal nutrition standards, and a contract to install an automated payment system to meal tickets and the associated stigma can be eliminated. Meals are healthier and participation rates are simultaneously higher, which is a great result.
There are still limits to the improvements. Schools spend less per meal on the actual food ingredients than fast food chains, and they still rely on a model of mimicking fast food style entrees- with less sugar, fat and salt- but still ‘training’ palates to like that kind of food. Ideally, LAUSD and other large urban districts can move more towards a farm to school approach that has already been adopted by thousands of schools across the nation. Farm to school involves procurement of locally grown food plus nutrition education in the form of farm visits and/or gardening. It’s been shown to boost consumption of fruits and vegetables and improve awareness of nutrition.
Affordable housing developments, like public schools, isn’t what first comes to mind when one thinks of healthy places or good food. But some residents and non profit developers are trying to change that image and reality. Well designed multifamily housing sites can include community gardens or edible landscaping. Residents can get training as gardeners. They can also become advocates for policy and planning changes to improve food access in their broader neighborhood- the stuff I’ve been talking about. With improved kitchen space there’s even the possibility of cooking, processing and selling some of what’s grown on site. We’ve been talking with two affordable housing developers in L.A. – WORKS and ELACC – who are excited about these kinds of programs and hopefully some of the ideas can be put into action.
Sharing the wealth
I want to close this post by stressing the importance of basic economic justice as a component of food justice.
Public assistance
If people can’t afford to buy decent food, all the healthy stores in the world won’t help. Some programs that deserve expansion as economic stimulus, basic justice, and for health include food stamps and farmers market vouchers. Policy makers and advocates should also help ensure that all stores and markets accept electronic benefit transfer. A new opportunity to marry economic assistance and health promotion is that WIC stores will finally be allowed to sell fruits and vegetables starting next year.
Economic development
Decent jobs are another goal that can be paired with enhanced access to healthy food. Unionized supermarkets traditionally offer living wage jobs and benefits. Jobs in local food enterprises like homeboy industries/ homegirl café and the Mercado la Paloma can also provide jobs for local residents and places to buy food.