Recently, Garfield Park community residents protested a new Save A Lot being built in their neighborhood. Normally, this would seem strange because the west side of Chicago is a food desert. A food desert is a place where fresh and healthy foods are hard to come by. The thing about this situation is that the Save A Lot’s that was already in West Garfield Park had many problems. The Save A Lot’s in the area had rotten food and broken freezers according to Block Club Chicago.
Community Needs
What’s important is that the community gets what it needs. In this case, is a place that properly fills the need of the residents of the community. A proper grocery store with fully functional freezers. The communities of Chicago deserve fresh food no matter what side they come from. The communities that live downtown or up north never have to deal with food insecurity. Yet, communities of color on the West and South sides of Chicago always have to deal with corporations trying to make a quick buck in their neighborhood. Even the available food that is there in these communities like fast food or corner stores is again, profiting from the community.
Save A Lot Failed This Community
The purpose of a grocery store is to provide fresh and healthy food to a community. Save A Lot was supposed to be doing that exact job. Yet it wasn’t. Before the store was bought by another company, it and others in the area were known in the area for being terrible.
At a community meeting recently, neighbors complained about spoiled food, unclean freezer compartments, and groceries sold on their expiration dates at other stores they visited, according to fliers by the Resident Association of Greater Englewood, according to Block Club Chicago.
Yellow Banana
Yellow Banana, a company that manages over 38 locations, bought Save A Lot in West Garfield. This kind of management can only ever mean one thing. Yellow Banana is a company that uses and sees grocery stores as a business. However, grocery stores are not business, they are an essential need for any community. Furthermore, companies treating needs like commodities is how communities like West Garfield Park end up with no grocery stores.
No Grocery Stores
However, that is the problem. The fact that after all this time, communities still end up with no grocery stores is unfair. People shouldn’t have to order all their food from fast-food places and delivery apps. Even if they were getting groceries from delivery apps, the delivery fees add up over time.
Green Line Goes Up
This is the balancing act that companies and communities are fighting about. Companies want to make profits, and the best way to make a profit using grocery stores in low-income areas is to barely manage them. Lower production equals higher profits. Moreover, people need food like they need water. People need food to live, so all these companies have to do is simply build a grocery store and then let it rot from the inside while the residents watch as yet another grocery store leaves.
Healthier Communities Are Possible
This shouldn’t be normal for the communities on the West and South sides. There are communities like Lincoln Park that have several grocery stores. Meanwhile, the average West Side experience is watching all the fruit rot in a local grocery store and then watching that same grocery store have to leave because it wasn’t maintained properly.
The state of food security needs to change in Chicago. Every community deserves a healthy and vibrant grocery store. All the communities in the great city of Chicago deserve a fully functional, clean, and vibrant community grocery store.
Written by Kenneth Mazerat
Sources
Block Club Chicago: New Owners Of West Garfield Park’s Save A Lot Will Meet With Neighbors Tuesday by Trey Arline
ABC 7 Chicago: Washington Park Save A Lot closed after break-in, residents told to use Englewood store by John Garcia
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Kzoo Cowboy’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
First Inset Image Courtesy of Robert Geiger’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
