Bringing Fresh Produce to Corner Stores in Declining Neighborhoods: Reflections from Detroit FRESH
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Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online http://www.foodsystemsjournal.org Bringing fresh produce to corner stores in declining neighborhoods: Reflections from Detroit FRESH Kameshwari Pothukuchi * Wayne State University Submitted February 17, 2016 / Revised July 5 and October 12, 2016 / Accepted October 14, 2016 / Published online December 20, 2016 Citation:. Pothukuchi, K. (2016). Bringing fresh produce to corner stores in declining neighborhoods: Reflections from Detroit FRESH. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 7(1), 113–134. http://dx.doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2016.071.013 Copyright © 2016 by New Leaf Associates, Inc. Abstract supplied fresh produce consistently. Operators The paper reports and reflects on an action with high levels of performance tended to be in zip research project to increase availability and sales of codes experiencing population losses at a lower fresh produce in 26 neighborhood corner stores in rate than the citywide average, be more committed Detroit, Michigan. Through analysis of neighbor- to their store-neighborhood, have more experience hood, store-related, and supply-chain character- with fresh produce sales, and be more willing to istics, I identify factors in successful operations as test alternatives. This paper reflects on the chal- well as challenges confronted by stores between lenges of implementing corner store strategies in 2009 and 2012, when many Detroit neighborhoods rapidly depopulating neighborhoods without lost population due to tax foreclosure and aban- ongoing subsidy. It also demonstrates the lessons donment. Neighborhood distress was reflected in in implementing them as action research projects challenges experienced by a majority of stores, including with students and community partners. including those that dropped out of the project prematurely (five out of seven), or participated only Keywords inconsistently (seven out of 10). Nine stores Healthy Corner Stores; Food Access; Neighbor- * Kameshwari Pothukuchi, Ph.D., Associate Professor and hood Decline; Detroit Chair, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State University; 3198 Faculty Administration Building; Acronyms Detroit, Michigan 48202 USA; +1-313-577-4296; CSK Capuchin Soup Kitchen [email protected] DUFB Double Up Food Bucks Volume 7, Issue 1 / Fall 2016 113 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online http://www.foodsystemsjournal.org EWUF Earthworks Urban Farm acquisition patterns. It traces the possibilities for, F&V Fruits and vegetables and limits to, increasing the supply of fresh pro- NAICS North American Industrial Classification duce in neighborhoods through partnerships with System corner stores, and discusses the implications of SIC Standard Industrial Classification doing so in a collaborative action research project SNAP Supplemental Nutrition Assistance involving students and community partners. Program, also known as food stamps As this paper shows, corner store initiatives in USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture neighborhoods experiencing significant decline WIC Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance cannot be sustained without ongoing subsidy. Program for Women, Infants, and Children Initiatives also require businesspeople with specific WSU Wayne State University commitments atypical to their category. The paper documents—albeit through a small sample of par- Introduction ticipating stores—the store, distribution, and com- Detroit, Michigan, is the locus of many collabora- munity conditions needed for successful, sustain- tive food-system activities to increase access to able corner store initiatives in such low income fresh and healthy food through urban agriculture, urban neighborhoods. A brief review of the litera- neighborhood farmers markets, farm-to-school ture is followed by a discussion of rationales for and/or -cafeteria initiatives, and community corner store strategies, and project methods and nutrition education. Efforts also exist to develop outcomes. A concluding section interprets findings supportive policy frameworks and financing and offers recommendations recognizing that con- initiatives (Pothukuchi, 2011, 2015). Led mostly by ditions of such widespread and deep decline are community-based organizations, these efforts relatively rare. collectively seek to satisfy the food and economic needs of residents, while repairing gaps in the Corner Store Initiatives: Research conventional food supply and building a more just and Rationales alternative to it. Over the last decade, corner stores Healthy food access in urban communities is a have emerged as possible resources for healthy much researched topic. Low income, predomi- foods in impoverished urban neighborhoods. nantly African American urban neighborhoods This paper elaborates on the experiences of tend to have a paucity of grocery supermarkets and lessons from one such pilot initiative, Detroit relative both to the demand that exists there as well FRESH, developed within a broader set of as to their white counterparts (Alwitt & Donley, community food-system collaborations led by its 1997; Galvez et al., 2008; Hendrickson, Smith, & parent organization, SEED Wayne.1 Between 2008 Eikenberry, 2006; Morland & Filomena, 2007; and 2011, Detroit FRESH assessed and attempted Pothukuchi, 2005; Social Compact, 2010; Zenk, to recruit 214 stores in some of Detroit’s poorest Schulz, Israel et al., 2005). Such neighborhoods neighborhoods on the east side and near west side. also have an overabundance of convenience and I describe and reflect on the initiative’s successes liquor stores and fast food outlets (Block et al., and limitations in a context of extreme and ongo- 2004; Moore & Diez Roux, 2006; Morland, Wing, ing neighborhood decline. The analysis highlights Diez Roux, & Poole, 2002; Powell, Chaloupka, & the relationship of the typical corner store to its Bao, 2007; Vallianatos, Azuma, Gilliland, & supply chain and to neighborhood residents’ food Gottlieb, 2010). Corner stores located here also 1 SEED Wayne is a campus-community collaborative dedi- Wayne supports entrepreneurial agriculture in a 4,000 sq. ft. cated to building student leadership in sustainable food (372 sq. m) passive solar greenhouse it helped build, neigh- systems through activities in teaching, research, and engage- borhood-based access to fresh produce, and healthy eating ment. On campus, student-led activities include three vege- workshops. For more details, read Pothukuchi (2012) or table gardens, a 22-week farmers market, and hands-on work- browse http://clas.wayne.edu/seedwayne. shops related to healthy eating. In the community, SEED 114 Volume 7, Issue 1 / Fall 2016 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online http://www.foodsystemsjournal.org offer few choices in healthy and fresh foods (Al- Although identified as an important factor (for gert, Agrawal, & Lewis, 2006; Cavanaugh, Mallya, example, by O’Malley, Gustat, Rice, & Johnson, Brensinger, Tierney, & Glanz, 2013; Gittelsohn et 2013), less is known about distribution networks to al., 2008; Horowitz, Colson, Hebert, & Lancaster, help stores become self-sustaining. We also know 2004; Lucan, Karpyn, & Sherman, 2010; Sharkey, little about the effects of neighborhood abandon- Dean, & Nalty, 2012). Consequently, residents in ment on corner stores’ inclination or ability to these neighborhoods experience higher food offer healthy foods or the factors that separate prices, fewer nutritious choices, and lower quality effective performers from others. This study seeks of products that are available there (Andreyeva, to close this gap; it also illuminates the coordina- Blumenthal, Schwarts, Long, & Brownell, 2008; tion needed to link corner stores to distributors as Franco, Diez Roux, Glass, Caballero, & Brancati, well as to facilitate neighborhood demand so as to 2008; Zenk, Schulz, Hollis-Neely et al., 2005). create a self-sustaining cycle of supply. However, not all poor urban neighborhoods lack Corner store strategies make sense for several healthy food retail options (Block & Kouba, 2006; reasons in Detroit. First, the stores represent a pre- Eckert & Shetty, 2011; Raja, Ma, & Yadav, 2008; existing retail infrastructure within impoverished Short, Guthman, & Raskin, 2007). If, and to what neighborhoods that larger retailers shun. They have extent, change in the neighborhood food environ- existing relationships with food and beverage ment can reverse obesity is also subject to debate distributors. Many also have the capacity to accept (Bader et al., 2013; Ford & Dzewaltowski, 2010; government nutrition programs such as SNAP Guthman, 2013; Osypuk & Acevedo-Garcia, 2010). (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and In this paper, I take as a starting point the WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance normative urban planning argument that neighbor- for Women, Infants, and Children). Second, store hoods ought to provide the basics of daily life owners may get to know their customers and may (Wekerle, 1985). As discussed previously, this is far develop long-term relationships with local residents from the reality in many urban neighborhoods and organizations, especially when cultural congru- whose residents shop at more distant supermar- ence exists between the operator and shoppers kets, a pattern confirmed for Detroit by Ledoux such as might be the case in Mexican Town or and Vojnovic (2013). Because members of domi- Bangla Town