However, subsequent evaluations of supermarket entry into low-income, low-access areas found little to no improvement in associated healthy food availability, purchases, or consumption among neighborhood residents. In 2010, the Obama Administration announced $400 million for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) to incentivize food retailers to locate in underserved urban areas and rural communities, and HFFI received additional funding in the past two farm bills. Placing supermarkets in historically marginalized communities with limited food access has been a popular solution in the U.S.
Indeed, chain supermarkets are less likely to locate in neighborhoods with lower incomes.
In recent years, the term “food apartheid” has been used to acknowledge structural barriers to food, which are rooted in racism and classism, intentional, and not naturally occurring. Forty million Americans live in areas defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as low-income and low-food-access, often referred to as “food deserts”.
#HEALTHY FOOD STORES DRIVER#
Limited healthy food access is a contributing driver to nutrition insecurity and nutrition-related health disparities (see Appendix A for definitions of terminology used throughout the paper). Retailers, researchers, philanthropy, and policymakers can utilize this definition of success and the identified strategies to improve healthy food access in their communities. Stores did not need to implement all strategies to be successful, however certain strategies, such as having a store champion, emerged as critical for all stores. Key strategies identified that enabled success included: (1) having a store champion, (2) using nontraditional business strategies, (3) obtaining innovative external funding, (4) using a dynamic sourcing model, (5) implementing healthy food marketing, and (6) engaging the community. However, stores differed in terms of their intention, action, and achievement of these aims. We used Stake’s multiple case study analysis approach to identify the following key aims that contributed to community store success across all cases: (1) making healthy food available, (2) offering healthy foods at affordable prices, and (3) reaching community members with limited economic resources. Using a multiple case study approach, this study examined what makes a healthy community food store successful and identified strategies for success in seven community stores in urban areas across the United States.
Mission-driven, independently-owned community food stores have been identified as a potential solution to improve access to healthy foods, yet to date there is limited information on what factors contribute to these stores’ success and failure.
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