Michelle Obama targets food deserts
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter/sguy@suntimes.com July 20, 2011 6:42PM
Michelle Obama hugs Josephine Grossi, a Shop N’ Save produce manager, in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday. | Mandel Ngan~Getty Images
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Updated: July 21, 2011 5:00AM
Chicago’s head start in opening grocery stores in needy neighborhoods won attention Wednesday when first lady Michelle Obama announced that Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Jewel-Osco owner Supervalu and other retailers will open or expand 1,500 stores in the next five years to bring fresh fruit, vegetables and other foods to so-called food deserts.
Obama is leading a nationwide effort called “Let’s Move” to lower childhood obesity rates, including by making fresh and healthier foods more widely available. She has urged grocers to expand into food deserts, largely poor and underserved areas.
The White House says nearly 24 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in such areas.
Walgreens, the Deerfield-based drugstore giant, is increasing to 50 from 10 the number of its Chicago stores with expanded healthy food sections and intends to convert or open 1,000 such stores nationwide in the five-year period.
Wal-Mart is opening two supercenters, one Neighborhood Market and two Express stores in Chicago’s food desert neighborhoods — part of the retail giant’s pledge to open 275 to 300 such stores nationwide by 2016. Wal-Mart said it has already opened 218 stores in food deserts in the past four years.
Supervalu intends to open another 30 of its discount Save-A-Lot stores in Chicago’s food deserts in the next five years as part of its commitment to open 250 more nationwide. It now operates 13 Save-A-Lot stores in Chicago and 1,280 nationwide, most of them operated by franchisees.
Supervalu also serves needy areas by acting as the wholesale grocery supplier to about 60 Chicago-area independent stores such as Moo & Oink and Pete’s Produce, said Supervalu CEO Craig Herkert.
“Supervalu makes decisions to grow where we can do so profitably,” Herkert said. “It makes business sense.”
Contributing: AP
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