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What is our answer to the challenge? If we are not to “give-in” what is the alternative that provides real change? Changes not limited to short impact volunteerism, give-aways that often create more problems, photo ops and marginal deliverables, but what about real game changing, economy building, capacity improving, meaningfully sustainable, significantly equitable deliveries? That is a real question. Answer it with your next action. 
The first Stockbox Grocery – built out of a reclaimed shipping container – has opened in a south Seattle food desert. A very practical and creative solution dreamed up by two MBA students. 
This week First Lady Michelle Obama made her second appearance with executives from Walmart as she announced that Walmart and other retailers plan over the next five years to open or expand 1,500 stores in areas without easy access to fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods. 
Notice how the retailers’ pledge initiative recounted in Big Retailers Make Pledge of Stores for ‘Food Deserts,’ (The New York Times, July 20, 2011) is entirely top-down and makes no mention of empowering local neighborhoods to support their own independent grocers? 
Two and a half days to drive cross country, Seattle to Chapel Hill, NC, an undertaking that came with a price; both myself and my partner in crime found ourselves ripe from days sans shower and exhausted both from sleep deprivation and a diet of fried chicken, mountain dew, and sunflower seeds. 
In tough economic times, it’s not unusual to see rural businesses close their doors. So the wide ray of hope shining from Wilmore, Kentucky, is nothing short of inspiring. |
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