SF Supervisor Pushing Healthy Food Proposal in City's Corner Stores
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— The march of the healthy food movement is picking up the pace in San Francisco where new efforts are targeting corner stores that don't sell enough fresh fruits and vegetables, or any at all.
Supervisor Eric Mar made headlines when he got the city to ban McDonald's Happy Meals because happy didn't necessary mean healthy. Now he's back with a new proposal to establish a Healthy Food Incentive Program to encourage small corner stores to stock fresh produce.
"It's getting healthier types of retail businesses that promote healthier living into key areas of San Francisco that really need it," Mar said.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
Places like the Tenderloin and the Bayview District, which are short on full service supermarkets and long on corner stores, mainly have stores stocked with alcohol, cigarettes and frozen foods.
19-year-old Malaysia Sanders said fresh produce would have been nice when she was growing up in the Bayview.
"I want to encourage whoever cares about health and health in the communities to really support a program like this because it would really help the people in the community that I live in."
Mar hasn't settled on what the incentives might be to encourage merchants to sell more fresh food, but it might include small business loans or some hands-on assistance from the city to make the switch to fresh produce.
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