Converting Shipping Containers Into Corner Groceries?
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.
Tag: Local food systems
Walmart’s Food Strategy – Redux
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.
But Michelle, Walmart IS a “Food Desert”
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?
Evergreen to Tar Heel: The Highway Food Desert
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.
Kentucky Community Rallies Around Local Grocery
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.
Getting Real About Food and the Future
The growing oil, water, and climate crises threaten food security in all communities. This new film by Chris Bedford looks at the deeper issues of food security and community survival in this new age of global chaos and scarcity. “Getting Real about Food & the Future” features the wisdom of John McKnight, Bill McDonough, Lester Brown, Bob Costanza, and David Korten.
Keeping Food Dollars at Home. What’s Behind the Local Multiplier?
Intuitively, the benefit of spending food dollars locally is fairly obvious – right? More dollars circulating locally means greater support to local businesses for a healthier community economy. Simple enough, but in explaining the local multiplier to local food advocates and policy-makers, things can get complicated fast.
Food pyramids – Where the money goes
Parents sometimes revert to the old adage, “Do as I say, not as I do!” when trying to raise kids to do the right and healthy thing. It seems the Federal Government has headed down the same path. And as consumers we’re off in our own direction, spending money in ways that ignore nutrition recommendations.