‘We’ve been neglected for years’: Indianapolis battles food deserts with new food division – The Indianapolis Star

‘We’ve been neglected for years’: Indianapolis battles food deserts with new food division – The Indianapolis Star

Amelia Pak-Harvey
 
| Indianapolis Star

The rundown Family Dollar off of 46th Street and Arlington Avenue has two somber messages posted on its door on a Wednesday afternoon.

First, it’s closed until further notice. Second, it doesn’t accept food stamps for food items.

That’s bad news for nearby residents, who used to shop at the Kroger right next door. Now it’s a shell of a building with an empty parking lot.

One man drives through in a beat-up sedan, squints to read the signs, and drives off.

Just five miles away at the Dollar General off of Mitthoeffer Road, the limited refrigerated grocery section is depleted. The milk and juice stock is largely gone, while the eggs and processed meats have taken a hit. 

This is life in an Indianapolis food desert, where dollar stores capitalize nearly every block and gas stations advertise chicken wings. The Dollar General caters to a specific census tract across Mitthoeffer Road where 91% of people live in a food desert, according to 2019 data from the SAVI program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. 

The city of Indianapolis, which recently created a food division, continues to battle a food desert dilemma that significantly affects Black communities here on the far eastside, but also stretches out in pockets all over Marion County, according to SAVI. 

Major food initiatives launched in 2019 still continue to this day: the city has so far spent or budgeted $130,000 for a Lyft program providing $1 rides to grocery stores, $220,525 for a smart phone application to connect residents to food, $195,000 in “food champion” grants to support residents who want to address food insecurity in their neighborhoods and $195,000 for a mobile grocery that offers fresh produce in different neighborhoods.

The Lyft program has since given out 17,402 rides to people in food deserts.

The app, called Community Compass, has had 10,439 downloads and received 1,266 texts from people searching for food.

The “food champion” program distributed $65,000 in grants to 20 community members for local food projects in its first year in 2019.

But food insecurity is still rampant. 

In 2020, roughly 185,000 Indianapolis residents were still living in a food desert — low-income areas where at least 200 people or one-third of residents are more than one mile from a grocery store, according to the SAVI program.

Food division will combine programs

Now, the city is launching a new food division within the Office of Public Health and Safety to oversee the various programs Mayor Joe Hogsett launched with city-county council approval in 2019.

City officials say it will streamline different food access programs and elevate the food security issue, which was also given $500,000 in funding both in 2020 and 2021 as part of a 25-year food security plan. 

“We have different food programs and food initiatives running within multiple departments within the city, and this will allow us to coordinate to ensure that we’re being the most impactful,” said Milele Kennedy, the city’s food policy and program coordinator who will head the new community nutrition and food policy division. “And also, provide a way to better keep track of the metrics around all of the programs that we have.”

But the programs, some observers note, make just a small impact on a massive long-term issue.

Republican Michael-Paul Hart, the lone council member who voted against the proposal to create the food division, argued that the proposal replicates work already done by the Indy Hunger Network nonprofit.

He supports the investment in various food programs, he said, but wants to see a focus on one core issue: drawing retailers back.

“They were on the right track, right,” he said about the city’s 2019 initiatives. “But it’s again a temporary solution that’s not really going to get grocery stores in the areas that need them, which is the root of the problem here.”

The hunger problem

DeJuan Parker drives past plenty of other dollar stores on the way to work at the Dollar General on Mitthoeffer Road and 38th St. 

He sees the food desert firsthand. When the two dollar stores on either side of his store — each roughly one mile away — close for the day, he sees an influx of people. That’s despite being right next to a Rio Grande supermarket that caters to a Spanish-speaking and Haitian crowd. 

Parker restocks the coolers two to three times a week, he said, but food is only delivered once a week. Customers will come in to see what’s available. 

“They’ll keep checking to see if we got the product, if they don’t have it they’ll ask us like, ‘Man, can y’all tell them to get y’all some more milk or get more cheese or something?'” Parker said. “After that, they’ll leave. Hopefully two or three days later we’ll get what they need, they’ll come right back.”

Family Dollar could reopen

A spokesperson for closed Family Dollar said the store at 46th St. and Arlington Avenue was being cleaning, noting the safety and health of employees and customers is their top priority.

But dollar stores, while high in canned and processed foods, lack fresh produce. 

Roughly 23,000 fewer people lived in a food desert in 2020 compared to 2019, according to SAVI. That’s partly because of a change in the data used for the most recent analysis, said Unai Miguel Andres, lead author of SAVI’s 2019 report.

But it’s also in part due to four new grocery stores opening, changing the total number from 200 to 204. 

Still, the 2019 data highlights glaring disparities across socioeconomic and racial demographics: 32% of Black residents and 21% of Hispanic or Latino residents lived in a food desert, compared to 18% of white residents. 

People in poverty faced a higher chance of living in a food desert, as well as renters and households without a car. 

And despite the city’s efforts, residents like Darlene Driver have not seen much of a difference. 

She used to take a taxi up to the Kroger at 46th Street and Arlington Avenue that has since closed. Now, she gets a ride to a Kroger once a week from her brother or a friend.

“I think that was tragic,” she said of the closure, carrying cooking oil and garbage bags that she bought from the Dollar General next to her apartment at 46th St. and Shadeland Avenue. “And a slap in our face.”

She’s heard of the city’s Lyft program but hasn’t used it since she’s not technologically inclined. She’d love to see more fresh produce around the area. 

“We would like to have fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, Walgreens has some,” she said, looking across the intersection of 46th St. and Shadeland Avenue to the pharmacy, “but it’s priced so high, you can’t afford it.”

But the pandemic has shifted some city efforts. The $195,000 meant to establish a mobile food market to bring fresh produce into food-insecure neighborhoods ended up morphing into a food delivery program due to the coronavirus, Kennedy said. 

“Post-COVID, we will be expecting that this will branch out to includes those that (do) online ordering or remote ordering, to be able to order in advance and have low-cost options for home delivery of groceries to their home,” she said. 

The Lyft program, initially targeted to residents in food deserts, expanded to the entire county during the pandemic and offered an extra 4,718 rides. 

More recently, the pandemic has also exacerbated food insecurity: the meal gap, measured as how any meals needed to feed people three meals a day, doubled between February and June, according to the Indy Hunger Network. The gap stood at 380,000 more meals needed in February and reached 740,000 in June.

New efforts

The city’s new food division aims to alleviate some of these issues. The division currently would not require any extra funding. 

The proposal also creates the Indianapolis Community Food Access Coalition, a successor to the Indy Food Council that will be separate from the city but will receive annual funding. Its goal: promote city policies on food equity and healthy food access. 

The administrator of the new food division will serve as the chief liaison between the coalition and city-county government.

“The longer term goal is to make sure that decisions involving food purchasing, nutrition, food access — anything touching on the food system — that are made within the city-county government will be coordinated by this new division within (the Office of Public Health and Safety) as kind of the central clearinghouse for that policy area,” said Matt Giffin, interim director of the public health office. 

But Hart, whose council district encompasses a food desert around Beech Grove, argued the measures duplicate existing efforts from the Indy Hunger Network. The area includes a Kroger and a Save A Lot that have closed in recent years. 

He also took issue with an independent coalition that still receives funding from the city.

“I as a Republican, think that we need to limit government as much as possible,” said Hart. “If we have this Indy Hunger Network already doing these things, it would make more sense to me to invest in them to grow instead of recreating the wheel.” 

Hart also suggested removing mention of race from the proposal, which highlighted that food insecurity is an issue particularly in communities of color and those with immigrants.

Hart argued that food insecurity has more to do with wealth than race. That suggestion did not pass through the council. 

But Kate Howe, executive director of the Indy Hunger Network, said the change will institutionalize the food security work permanently. 

“As there’s turnover in administrations, that work will continue and it won’t be a political appointment,” Howe said.

In the meantime, though, Driver is packing up and moving to Fishers after 14 years in the desert. 

She’s tired, not just of the food insecurity, but everything else that living in the area brings: trash, crime, lack of public infrastructure, overall neglect. 

“There’s a lot of things they could do that they’re not doing,” she said. “…we’ve been neglected for years.”

Call IndyStar reporter Amelia Pak-Harvey at 317-444-6175 or email her at apakharvey@indystar.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmeliaPakHarvey.

Published at Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:00:52 +0000