Today while sitting in on a nutrition class at Emancipation Station women's shelter, I was thinking about "food deserts". There is a disparity in the number of grocery stores on the East Side of Kansas City. The choices for food for anyone who walks or rides the bus is limited to pharmacy type stores, convenience stores, fast food chains and liquor stores. A fresh vegetable or fruit is hard to find. It seems ironic that the woman speaking to the homeless is trying to teach nutrition and good choices for food. But with this new knowledge, these women have very little chance of actually practicing it. The food stores that supply the produce and non-processed foods have already evacuated the neighborhoods. Some clients mentioned that there was a "Piggly Wiggly" store that went out of business last week over on the Kansas side. Their experience with shopping there was that things were expired. Often over 2 months expired.
Why are there no grocery stores? Was there no demand? It seemed from my small sampling of the poorest of the poor in Kansas City, that these women had a desire to cook with these raw foods. They shared tips on how to handle chili peppers and store homemade soups and prepared meats. It seems they had the knowledge. Was the food simply too time consuming? Too expensive for a population who individually must work several jobs to make ends meet?
