Food News and Musings on My Hometown
The St. Petersburg Development Review Commission has advanced a measure that would expand the opportunities to grow and sell local produce in the city.
The proposal would amend the city’s land development regulations to allow for more community gardens, commercial gardens and greenhouses, and to let growers sell produce in more locations, including residential districts. By Margie Manning for St. Pete Catalyst CLICK HEADLINE OR PHOTO TO READ MORE
A swath of northeast St. Petersburg between the avenues of 62nd and 79th north bordering 4th Street to the west and stretching into Tampa Bay to the east is the site of St. Petersburg’s latest USDSA-designated food desert.
The closing of a Winn-Dixie at 7489 4th St. N. on February 10 of this year is the catalyst.
We have taken countless measurements, written pages of reports and attended numerous conferences to glean best practices to bring back to our communities. It is now time to put resources and energy into solutions.
It is time for tangible policy and action. It is time for non-profits and government to show businesses what is needed and possible. It is time to put resources, previously used for data collection, into a communications plan that targets local businesses with the key message, “Here’s how you can make a difference in health equity.” By Wendy Wesley, RDN
When a diverse group of St. Petersburg residents were asked to name the greatest barriers to an equitable, resilient and regenerative food system, their answers had less to do with food and more to do with people.
1. Lack of interest in government leadership
2. Gentrification
3. Racism
4. Lack of funds/resources for business/lack of owned land
5. Community buy-in. People don’t know there is a problem
By Wendy Wesley, RDN
Story by Megan Holmes of the St. Pete Catalyst from December 9, 2019
When the Walmart Neighborhood Market at Tangerine Plaza shuttered in February 2017, its loss shook the surrounding community. It was the second major grocery store to close its doors in just five years, after Sweetbay in 2013. Now, 1,000 days later, the 42-block area surrounding Tangerine Plaza (located on the corner of 22nd St. and 18th Ave S.) remains a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognized food desert, marked by low income and a lack of access to healthy and affordable food. By Megan Holmes for St. Pete Catalyst
Within a 42-block area of south St. Petersburg’s are six dollar-type stores and not one full-service grocery store that sells fresh or frozen produce, meats, dairy or whole grains.
Sold at these stores, two Dollar Generals and four Family Dollars, are highly processed, high sodium, low fiber, low nutrient foods that residents purchase in lieu of nutrient-dense foods available at grocery stores more than one mile away.
In total, dollar-type stores outnumber Walmart and Starbucks combined with more than 30,000 now operating. Plans to open another 10,000 are in the works. A trend is afoot nationally to shine a light on how they elbow out full-service grocers and other innovation for nutrition equity. By Wendy Wesley, RDN
Within a 42-block area of south St. Petersburg there is no full-service grocery store that sells fresh or frozen produce, meats, dairy products or whole grains.
But between 4th and 45th Avenues South and 34th Street South to the Bay there are six dollar stores: two Dollar Generals and four Family Dollars.
The scarcity of affordable and nutritious foods in the area may be impacted by the concentration of these small, discount stores that sell highly processed, high sodium, low nutrient and low fiber food. By Wendy Wesley, RDN
