The new initiative builds on a pledge announced in January with Walmart. The nation’s largest food retailer says it knows firsthand how important access to good food is. “We will use our position to reduce the cost of an increase access to healthy foods,” wrote Chad Mitchell on the Walmart community blog.
Walmart pledged today to open up to 300 stores in food deserts by 2016, but other giant retailers are involved, too. Walgreens says it will start offering whole fruits and vegetables, SUPERVALU is building 250 new stores, and various smaller groups are joining forces and money in the effort.
The White House admits that no single initiative is a magic bullet. And the goal of melting some inches off our collective waistline is complicated.
Consider the study published last week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which blames the easy access to fast food options for obesity problems, rather than a lack of stores selling healthy food.
Yet another recent study from the University of Maine finds easy access to junk food doesn’t appear to affect students’ body mass index.
But making the healthy stuff easier to get may be a good start.
Michelle Obama Tackles “Food Deserts” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
