Meijer – Alex B. Hill

will big box grocers change access to food in Detroit?

You can quote me on this:

“more big box stores will not equal better food choices”

On January 20, 2011, First Lady Michelle Obama launched an initiative with Walmart and the Let’s Move Campaign to increase access to fresh and healthy foods. The program is supposedly bneing evaluated by the Partnership for a Healthier America, whose Chair, James Gavin said he would like to see Walmart double its US store count.

I don’t often shop in Walmart (actually I try to avoid it), but last month I had a reason to be in a Walmart store. Working in childhood obesity research and surveying food outlets for nutritional quality, I took the time to notice the advertisements and products on display. To say the least, none of the food items advertised or on display were healthy or fresh.

There were none.

Behavior Change & Food

My point is that more Walmart stores in “food deserts” doesn’t necessarily mean that more people are going to be eating healthier. I don’t doubt that Walmart making an effort to improve the nutritional quality of its food products and offering more fresh and healthy foods will have a negative impact, however it is going to take more. When a low-income family has the choice between the on-sale advertised frozen dinners or the larger amount of fresh vegetables they are more than likely going to choose the product where they get more for their money (or at least what seems like it).

“there needs to be more education, access, and a american cultural shift towards healthier eating”

Everyday I work with adolescents and their families on managing childhood obesity. We talk about making healthy changes to their food intake and often times we talk about how to shop for healthy foods on a budget. It is possible and varies in difficulty, depending on your situation. Some families that I’ve worked with went the entire six months of the program without changing much in their eating habits. Changing your food choice is not that easy.

Eating healthier is easier if you are wealthier, have greater options, and have been introduced to ideas of healthy eating from a young age or cultural norm. Classism in the slow food movement is another topic, but extremely relevant as we talk about access to healthy food, urban settings, and growing income inequality often reflected in racial disparities.

Grocery Stores in Detroit

The idea of having more big box stores address “food deserts” and the lack of healthy foods isn’t new. The idea easily makes sense; large chain supermarkets are better able to supply larger amounts of fresh produce on a regular basis if they want to. Save-a-Lot released a report on food deserts in April 2010 and has also signed on to First Lady Obama’s campaign.

For Detroit, Save-a-Lot represents a greater potential than Walmart to be able to address the need to greater access to healthy and fresh foods since there are already ten locations in Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramack. I have yet to be able to assess the level and quality of fresh food available at a Save-a-Lot store (coming soon).

Anyone following food in Detroit knows that a Whole Foods store is being built in the Midtown district, near the Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University and on the way home for downtown workers leaving the city. This was not the step forward that so many people were hoping for when there was talk of bringing in a national supermarket. Whole Foods is a specialty food store that caters to a wealthier clientele (Midtown avg household income: $113,788), I only go there for wine and dessert. It may bring more fresh food to the Midtown area, but won’t help many Detroiters without access to healthy foods.

A new development with more potential to impact the Detroit fresh food scene is the re-purposing of a former Detroit high school into a Meijer supermarket. Meijer often promotes healthy food options, has a partnership to offer healthy kids recipes, and has a fairly well-stocked produce section.

Big Box vs. Small Grocer

Like many locations that lack necessities, people create solutions to address those needs. Detroit has a number of small grocers and food supply stores, not to mention the largest Farmer’s Market in the US. As the #Occupy protests address money in politics and the ills of corporations, we need to be mindful of where and how food is accessed. Food is a critical piece of our national health and unfortunately our national politics.

People’s needs should be placed over profit and neither ketchup nor pizza are vegetables!

Recipe: Chisaya Mama Stuffed Peppers

Food, Life, Recipes

Since moving to Ann Arbor, Nichole and I have had the chance to try out some new recipes, some of which we are very proud of and enjoy sharing. With my job working in healthy weight loss through education and healthy food choices and Nichole’s upbringing in healthful (lactose-free) foods, we have a wonderful repertoire of recipes for those with their good health in mind.

We picked up a stuffed peppers recipe from Meijer one day because it looked interesting, had lots of vegetables, and decided to make healthier with our own additions. We added more corn and quinoa. Quinoa was considered sacred by the Inca people, calling it chisaya mama or ‘mother of all grains.’

Ingredients:

2 Bell Peppers (of any color preference) (30 cal./pepper)
(1) 16 oz Jar of Corn & Bean Salsa (from Meijer) (260 cal.)
(1) 8oz Can of Whole Kernel Corn (120 cal.)
1 Can of Black Beans (rinse before using) (330 cal.)
1 Garlic Clove (4 cal.)
1/4th of an Onion (1-2 cal.)
1/2th Cup of Quinoa (Brown Rice can be substituted) (344 cal.)
1/2 lb. of Ground Turkey (425 cal.)
Pam Cooking Spray with Olive Oil (0 cal.)

Steps:

Spray a good sized pan to cook the ground turkey.
Add finely diced the garlic and onion to the pan along with the ground turkey, cook until browned.
Add 1/2th cup of quinoa & 1 cup of water to a pot. Set to boil until water is gone.
In a large mixing bowl, combine: browned ground turkey, cooked quinoa, kernel corn, 1/2 – 1/3 can of rinsed black beans, and the jar of salsa.
Cut 2 bell peppers in half and clear out the insides.
Place the pepper halves in a glass pan or on a cookie sheet and fill the pepper halves with the stuffing mixture.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 350 degrees.

One (1) stuffed pepper made with this recipe has about 325 Calories with lots of fiber, protein, and other nutrients to help you feel full for a long time.

Average cost for the meal, making 4 stuffed pepper halves: $17

grand rapids can’t afford for detroit to fail

Development

One of the recent articles from “Assignment Detroit” in Fortune Magazine attempts to say that Detroit needs to learn from Grand Rapids. The content that follows in the article goes on to prove that Grand Rapids is not like Detroit at all.

The article was titled, “A Michigan Success Story” with the tagline: “Its not the kind of view you expect these days in downtrodden Michigan”. It seems they can never give a clear message about Michigan or Detroit. Its a success, but downtrodden. Its working hard, but never making the mark. Let’s jump right in – so it is true, Grand Rapids is growing, has retained young people, and has significant investment in higher education and medical services – but that does not mean Detroit can replicate the business successes of this tiny West Michigan city.

Grand Rapids is not similar to Detroit. They had different industries, different populations, and different mean levels of income. From the article:

“thanks to a combination of business leadership, public-private cooperation, and the deep pockets of local philanthropists.”

This picture is not as visible in Detroit, the deep pockets of philanthrophy don’t reach as far in a significantly larger city with a larger population (ever with Detroit’s population decline). Retired Chairman and CEO of Old Kent Bank, John Canepa is quoted saying,

“But Grand Rapids had an unusual set of assets. The wealth in this city in proportion to its size is extraordinary.”

The Amway corporation and family, DeVos (whose name appears on far too many things in Grand Rapids), Steelcase and Meijer.

“The founders of those companies and their descendants still reside in Grand Rapids area, and match their deep roots with deep pockets of philanthropic dollars.”

The article’s author is defeating his own argument with each quote he gets from local Grand Rapids leaders. They recognize that there were some similarities in how the decline in industry had effects on both cities, but are not as naive to think that what worked for Grand Rapids will work for Detroit.

Unemployment in Grand Rapids is still very high and not surprisingly this disproportionately affects minority communities. Detroit is a city of minorities, unlike Grand Rapids that holds its roots in the white, anglo-saxon, protestant traditions with traceable histories, long roots to local areas, propped by family assets and connections. The city government of Grand Rapids is also facing serious budget cutting and is working with unions to decrease benefits.

Grand Rapids is the “greenest city in the US” with more LEED-certified buildings per capita. This could also be attributed to the growing trends in environmental sustainability and the wealth that exists in Grand Rapids. Where Detroit can take a lesson is in offering more opportunities for Green Jobs. The Grand Rapids Community College just opened excellent training courses for various “green” industries. I will begin writing more about “green” solutions in following posts.

Detroit doesn’t have the hard cash wealth that Grand Rapids has, but it does have other rich assets when it comes to new ideas and initiatives for improvement. As in Grand Rapids, these ideas don’t come from the government or its funds.

A last final and important take-away from the article was a quote from Mayor George Heartwell, “we can’t afford to see Detroit fail. But if Grand Rapids recovery took two decades, how long will it take Detroit?”
No one can afford for Detroit to fail.