RICHMOND—Residents of a low-income neighborhood on Richmond’s Northside, where full-service grocery stores are rare, are getting access to nutritious food, thanks to a Baptist project that aims to reduce the impact of “food deserts” sprinkled across the city and much of the Mid-Atlantic region.
A converted beverage truck, re-fitted with refrigerators, freezers and storage containers, is making Saturday stops in the parking lot of Northminster Baptist Church, offering almost 100 families fresh meats, eggs and dairy products at about a third less than prices in grocery stores—which in any event are hard to find in the economically-stressed zone.
Residents stock up on fresh meats and dairy products from the mobile grocery on one of its visit to their Richmond neighborhood.
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In a partnership with Shalom Farms, a non-profit farm community, fresh fruit and vegetables also are available, and Northminster Church’s food pantry opens its doors during the mobile grocery’s visits.
“In food deserts, there are critical issues in finding grocery stores, especially for people who can’t afford cars,” said Joel Ingram, hunger relief specialist for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, which helped fund the mobile grocery through its world hunger fund. Additional funding was provided by the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission, which administers hunger funds collected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
“We’re providing more nutritious food at more affordable prices,” said Ingram. Large grocery stores rarely open branches in depressed areas, and corner markets are expensive and have limited supplies, he added.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a low-income census tract more than a mile from a supermarket in urban centers, and more than 10 miles in rural areas. A study by the Center for Disease Control strongly suggests significantly higher levels of obesity and diabetes in food deserts, which “lack access to affordable fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat milk and other foods that make up the full range of a healthy diet.”
The USDA estimates 400,000 Virginians and about 410,000 North Carolinians live in food deserts, as do thousands in Washington and as much as 18 percent of Baltimore’s population. Ethnic minorities are disproportionately impacted.
On a recent Saturday in Richmond, the mobile grocery’s entire supply—ground beef, chicken, cheese, milk and eggs—sold out in an hour and half, said Ingram.
“We want to sell the food at a lower price rather than give it way to preserve residents’ dignity by actually making purchases,” he said. But the 65 percent lower prices also “helps them save money for other bills,” he added.
Baptist hunger funds allowed the Mission Board to buy a used beverage truck for about $17,000, said Dean Miller, the board’s Virginia missions coordinator. Mike Oberschmidt, an experienced Baptist disaster relief volunteer from King George, Va., retrofitted the truck, giving it new life as a mobile grocery, said Miller.
The truck is stocked with up to $1,000 of food, purchased with Virginia Baptist hunger funds.
Miller said the project’s goal is to transfer ownership of the truck to a church or district association in Central Virginia prepared to take on the ministry—and then do the same with at least two more trucks in other parts of the state.
Wendy McCaig, executive director of Embrace Richmond who works closely with the community ministries of Northminster Church, said the mobile grocery is having an impact in a part of the city that desperately needs it.
“Our friends here don’t have cars,” said McCaig, a Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond graduate who founded the Christian community development organization Embrace Richmond. “Our goal is stretch their food dollars so they can eat healthily.
McCaig said Northminster Church has planted a community garden whose produce will supplement both the congregation’s food pantry and the mobile grocery truck’s regular visits.
Robert Dilday ( [email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.