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 café 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!