Health Education and Wellness

Satellite Office
1628 S. Main
(918) 382-1281

Left to right: Rita Scott of Buy Fresh Buy Local, Rep. Seneca Scott, Demalda Newsome of North Tulsa EATS and Steve Eberle, IHCRC Food and Garden Coordinator.

Healthy Corner Grocery Stores Championed

State Representative Seneca Scott (representing HD 72 in north and central Tulsa) has proposed Healthy Corner Store legislation for the 2010 legislative session, providing funding, employee training and assistance in acquiring EBT machines to process SNAP benefits (food stamps). State Representatives Jabar Shumate (HD 73), Dan Morrissette (HD 93) and Eric Proctor (HD 77) are also strong supporters of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative.

This past fall, Scott Smith, owner of the Blue Jackalope coffee shop and grocery store (pictured on page 12) in Tulsa's Crosbie Heights neighborhood, Doug Walton of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture and I spoke before the House Economic Development Committee and the House Agriculture Committee to present the need for Healthy Corner Store legislation in the 2010 session.

Scott Smith describes the efforts of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative committee in Tulsa as "an initiative to fund and locate community grocery stores in food deserts. We quickly realized that without access to supermarket wholesalers ($20,000/week minimum purchase is necessary per store); inventory costs are likely to be too great to operate profitably. We are in the process of starting a Coop to purchase and re-distribute to the neighborhood stores. Phase two of the distribution center is to develop the local agricultural economy by offering distribution for growers. We believe this will allow area growers to expand production beyond the farmers market retail model."

he Tulsa Food Security Council recognizes that food security is a right, not a privilege. Two consequences of food deserts are an increase in diabetes, depression and obesity in children causing an ever increasing toll on the healthcare system of Oklahoma. By providing underserved people access to fresh food retailers with greater variety, the initiative will give these communities the choice of a more nutritionally balanced diet. The lower food costs will also enable underserved persons living on fixed budgets to purchase higher quality foods.

upermarkets and other grocery stores will also make valuable contributions to the community by creating jobs and revitalizing neighborhoods. This capitalization program would increase the number of supermarkets, or other grocery stores in underserved communities across Oklahoma. This statewide program would meet the financing needs of supermarket operators that plan to operate in underserved communities where infrastructure costs and credit needs cannot be filled solely by conventional financial institutions.

In California a formula was used to identify food deserts by comparing the number to fast food restaurants and convenient stores to the number of grocery stores and farmers markets. The survey data showed a direct correlation between impoverished neighborhoods and food deserts. Oklahoma is no exception, but we are also impacted by the loss of small town grocery stores. Individuals using food stamps often live in a food desert where they have little choice but to shop in stores that only provide processed food - thus providing an unhealthy diet and correspondingly increased rates of diabetes, depression and obesity in children and adults.