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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Food Desert Week 2

After last week’s findings about food deserts in Chicago, we thought we’d investigate our own backyard and see if Seattle has anything up its sleeve…and we’ve discovered some incredible information! 

Meet Stockbox: a miniature grocer tucked inside a reclaimed shipping container!  Just outside of South Seattle, Stockbox Grocers  - a new startup funded by Kickstarter - is bringing fresh and healthy food options to the Delridge neighborhood where the nearest grocery is over 45 minutes away. 

Stockbox just started in early September; their goal is to expand with two permanent sites by early 2012, and at least two more later in the year.  They offer a spectrum of fresh food, meat and dairy for communities that would otherwise likely go without these nutritional necessities.   

Seattleite, Carrie Ferrence, Stockbox’s cofounder, noted their goal is to “bring food back into community, and that is something that resonates in all kinds of places.” 

In visiting many of our clients' struggles with food and the fact that most of us readily have access to fresh options, it’s a sobering reality to imagine a place where access is utterly limited.    

An idea is to practice gratitude for the fresh food you have in your home; the fresh food you’re going to buy from your local grocer; or the fresh food which you will consume from a restaurant or cafĂ© today.  Not everyone is so fortunate, but with the ingenious ideas like Stockbox, the path to fresh food access for all is being paved.  No matter what struggle we’re going through food related or not, access to food, is one thing many of us have on our side! 

In the coming weeks, we hope to visit Stockbox and get an inside look at what they’re offering to the community.  For more information about Stockbox or if you’d like to help promote their cause please see their website. If you know of other efforts to help solve food desert dilemmas in Seattle, post us a comment!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Life Problem? Got a Great Pathway for you.

This picture is courtesy of my friend Kristen Reaves Bell. Just something fun to ponder.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Food Deserts

Have you ever heard of this term before, "food desert?"  A food desert is an area (primarily low income neigborhoods) where it is difficult to access nutritious and healthful food items. These areas are usually littered with fast food restaurants and convenient stores yet very little to no actual grocery stores.

Food deserts are truly a disservice to it's communities as the people living there are just like the rest of us, over worked, underpaid and busy with regular life and school activities. And when it's meal time and the closest grocery store is a 20-45 minutes drive away compared to a fast food joint on every corner, which option would you choose? Now consider that you did not meal plan, nor go make it to the grocery store the previous weekend and only have $10 to feed your entire family. That is an even bigger motivator to drive through.

In Chicago, they are FINALLY addressing this issue. Now, to just get Seattle on the bandwagon.


Emanuel steps up battle against city's 'food deserts'