Week 3

 This week’s article was neatly written and talks about the history of “food deserts”. There are many parts to this article that I found interesting about the history. Starting off with the fact that in poor communities there are more liquor stores than there are grocery stores. It makes it hard for those communities to have access to healthier foods. Most are these communities are located in flatlands. The average income is about 25 percent lower than the entire city of Oakland.

In 1934, the FHA created low income mortgages for small single family homes to build up the suburbs. These houses were practically built over night creating a cookie cutter community. People of color were rarely accepted for a FHA loan and if they were they were racially excluded from industrial gardens. Even after the Supreme Court case of Shelley v. Kraemer to make racial covenants illegal there were still issues that remained in practice. There was also the issue of banks redlining property investments in communities of color. 

After World War II, supermarkets dominated the food market. Many small chain and family owned food markets went out of business from “price wars”. By 1975, corporate food markets controlled about two thirds of food market. 

It’s honestly quite sad knowing how much divide there is. There are so many hardships and differences in communities of color. Just to find healthy food, instead of junk food or liquor, is even hard to come by.