Real Estate Firm: Food Desert Crisis Continues In Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A real estate research company says food stores have been expanding in Chicago's South and West sides, but not enough to change the name from food deserts.
As WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports, Mid-America Real Estate vice president Dan Tausk says Aldi and Save-a-Lot have led the way into underserved areas, prospering by avoiding mistakes of others.
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"It's not really giving the consumer the same experience they were getting in non-food deserts in more affluent areas," he said.
Tusk says grocery stores have long been so few and far between that even with an 11 percent expansion in square footage available the South and West sides still deserve the name "food deserts."
Fighting the food desert crisis has been a focus of many efforts in both the public and private sectors in recent years. Last year, Wal-Mart committed to a focus on bringing fresh produce and other such items to food deserts, and in June, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that 50 new Walgreens drugstores plan to add fresh fruits and vegetables in communities that don't have many options.
Last month, Mayor Emanuel also suggested turning abandoned eyesores into urban farms as a way to combat the food crisis. He said Walgreens and Wal-Mart have already said they would buy and distribute food grown at urban farms.
