New DC-Focused Report: When Healthy Food is Out of Reach

From an email:

I’m writing to pass along some information on a report released this week by D.C. Hunger Solutions called When Healthy Food is Out of Reach. The report found a wide discrepancy among the District’s neighborhoods in terms of availability of healthy food. Here are some of the key findings:

* The ratio of full-service grocery stores to residents varies widely among the District’s wards. Ward 3 has five times as many full-service grocers per capita as Ward 4.
* On average, residents of Wards 4, 5, and 7 must travel longer distances than residents in other wards to reach the closest full-service grocery store.
* The District loses more than $112 million in annual grocery revenues to neighboring jurisdictions because existing grocery retail is insufficient to meet residents’ demand.
* Some areas of the District—particularly in Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8—are underserved by full-service grocery retail, compared to other areas. (The recent closure of one of Ward 5’s three full-service grocery stores has compounded the problem.)

For those that live in Wards 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 (and all folks for that matter) do you feel that you are underserved by full-service grocery stores?

As a Ward 4 resident I am very happy with the new Yes! Organic Market at Taylor and Georgia. But when I want a “regular” grocery store I walk all the way to the Giant in Columbia Heights (with my awesome granny cart) instead of using the less than appealing Safeway at Georgia and Quincy. Hopefully I’ll have an update on the future of that store in the next week or so.

You can read the press release here:  http://www.dchunger.org/press/grocery_gap.htm

And you can download the full report here: http://www.dchunger.org/pdf/grocerygap.pdf