New Reports on Food Security and Supermarkets in Philadelphia

Posted by on June 16, 2006

[posted from Community Food Security Coalition newsletter]

Two reports released today by The Food Trust shed new light on the issues of access to fresh food and supermarkets. Philadelphia?s New Markets: Ripe Opportunities for Retail in Philadelphia finds both substantial unmet food retail demand and tremendous economic opportunity for food retail development throughout Philadelphia?s neighborhoods. The report demonstrates that some neighborhoods in the city have as much as $205 million in unmet food retail demand, despite each inner-city community possessing at least $50 million dollars of retail buying power per square mile.

Food Geography: How Food Access Affects Diet and Health, a joint collaboration between The Food Trust and the Philadelphia Health Management Corporation, finds a strong connection between poor health, lack of access to healthy food, and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Together, these two reports quantify what many people have known for years: many neighborhoods in Philadelphia that have the economic base to support a supermarket are currently without one, and furthermore this lack of access has profound effects on public health. These reports are very encouraging for those of us working to promote access to healthy foods with the goal of improving health.

To access the complete reports, visit
http://www.thefoodtrust.org/php/programs/super.market.campaign.php