Poverty and Food

When we consider affordability for Asheville, keep in mind that the poorer you are, the more expensive food gets. Wonk Room:

The Washington Post ran an article today laying out in excruciating detail how expensive it is to be poor. As reporter DeNeen Brown put it, “the poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace.” And by far, the most striking problem to me was the extra costs associated with buying food. Consider:

You don’t have a car to get to a supermarket, much less to Costco or Trader Joe’s, where the middle class goes to save money. You don’t have three hours to take the bus. So you buy groceries at the corner store, where a gallon of milk costs an extra dollar. A loaf of bread there costs you $2.99 for white. For wheat, it’s $3.79. The clerk behind the counter tells you the gallon of leaking milk in the bottom of the back cooler is $4.99….The milk is beneath the shelf that holds beef bologna for $3.79. A pound of butter sells for $4.49…(At a Safeway on Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, the wheat bread costs $1.19, and white bread is on sale for $1. A gallon of milk costs $3.49 — $2.99 if you buy two gallons. A pound of butter is $2.49. Beef bologna is on sale, two packages for $5.)

New York City is addressing the problem of poverty and food costs head on by incentivizing grocery stores in targeted neighborhoods. CityLimits.org:

The city is widely expected to soon introduce new zoning and financial incentives aimed at encouraging supermarket development in neighborhoods with few grocery stores. The Department of City Planning last week would confirm only that the city is working toward announcing the details of the plan – but details have been emerging.

We’ve got to ensure that public transit is cheap and efficient, so people without vehicles can get to proper grocery stores. Can you think of any neighborhoods in Asheville that lack a grocery store within a few minutes travel? I’d like to see a grocery open up in the River Arts District to service Clingman Ave., Erskine, and the east side of west Asheville. It would also be a destination for downtown residents. We don’t likely need to incentivize one, because grocery owners will see the potential. But if state or federal tax breaks exist to encourage grocery stores within a mile of areas with poverty, I’d be gratified to see a local entrepreneur focusing on providing quality food receive the benefits.