Food Desert

The food desert is one of the more noticeable effects caused by the revolving door problems such as crime, failing infrastructure, and lack of responsible development.  Luckily, there are several ways to solve this issue.  To start, Thomas plans to tackle the cause of the issue head-on with the larger problems of development.  But there are also many out of the box ways to address the issue directly, which could potentially provide a more community-oriented, better service, and healthier solution.  The easier and more popular options are for farmers markets and Co-op based grocery stores.  With the city’s recent update of the zoning code,the types of solutions are more viable now than ever. With a smaller upfront investment from either a business owner, entrepreneur, or city-sponsorship these types of solutions are easier to obtain than having the next big box store tear down a city block, only to become vacant in 10 years.  Another solution is to better market to smaller stores such as Whole foods, Aldi, and Lidl who have a smaller overhead than the larger big box stores and can often operate in areas with a smaller customer base to support them.