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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Obtaining nutritious food is a challenge for those without transportation
  • Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:53:21 -0700


Lack of supermarket could pose health risk to many in Adelanto
Obtaining nutritious food is a challenge for those without transportation
Desert Dispatch, Barstow, CA, March 21, 2004
http://www.vvdailypress.com/cgi-bin/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsid1079881126,87358,/
By NIKKI COBB/Staff Writer

ADELANTO -- Travelers speed past a dingy strip mall filled mostly with
abandoned shops and fading signs on a dusty corner of Highway 395 and
Chamberlaine Lane.

Unlike some of the shops there, the Circle K gas station/convenience store
anchoring one end of the shopping center bustles with activity. A banner
above the Circle K's entrance features the specials: "Bud, Miller, Coors,
Tecate. 18-packs, $10.99. What else do you need?" Another sign perched by
the road reads: "Marlboro $3.39 pack, when you buy 2 or more. What else do
you need?"

The store does a brisk business, though not necessarily from the people
traveling through town. Most customers one recent afternoon were area
residents, many on foot, many with children, shopping for their dinner.

Their choices? A rack bulging with enormous bags of potato chips in a
variety of flavors. Two of the 11.5-oz "XXL" pouches of salty snacks can be
had for $5, and there's an assortment of dips on the shelf below to dunk
them in. Other shelves have crackers, canned goods, and processed cheese,
and refrigerated cases hold other goodies like ice cream and sodas.

What else do you need?

"We need a supermarket -- oh, my God, we need one badly. We need a
supermarket more than anything," said Beverly Wilkson.

Kevin Mahany agrees.

Mahany, director of the Healthy Communities program at St. Mary Medical
Center in Apple Valley, said Adelanto is a prime example of a city where
nutrition related health problems develop because the population lacks ready
access to affordable and nutritious food.

Children from such communities have more difficulty in school, are more
likely to be sick and wind up in the emergency room than affluent kids with
wider dietary options, Mahany said.

Studies show that as income levels drop, the percentage of income spent on
food increases. But families struggling to get the most for their money
often purchase convenience foods that are high in fat and low in nutrients.

That can lead to obesity and the increasingly common childhood type 2
diabetes.

Nutrition Research

"There is no question that the rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the
United States follow a socioeconomic gradient, such that the burden of
disease falls disproportionately on people with limited resources,
racial-ethnic minorities, and the poor," said a study by nutrition
researchers Adam Drewnowski and SE Specter.

"Fats and oils, sugar, refined grains, potatoes, and beans represented some
of the lowest-cost options and provided dietary energy at minimal cost.
Health disparities among U.S. population groups are related to inequalities
in socioeconomic status. Some of these disparities may be mediated by an
unequal access to a healthy diet," the researchers found.

"When you're buying your food at a liquor store, for example, the costs are
higher and the full complement of nutrition is simply not there," said
Mahany. "Residents do have places to go to get food. But our community
health folks know that there's a strong correlation between being
low-income, being on food stamps, and obesity, especially childhood
obesity."

Adelanto families are twice as likely to live below the poverty level
compared with the rest of California, and nearly 28 percent of families with
young children are poor. Many don't have transportation -- Wilkson pays
relatives $10 each way for a ride to Victorville for groceries.

When she can afford to.

Wilkson and her three children live in a mobile home in a run-down
neighborhood across the street from the Circle K. She said she does much of
her shopping at the gas station, she said, because she has little choice.
Adelanto doesn't have a supermarket.

"Used to be, the bus stopped right here and for a dollar you could go to
Victorville to shop," she said. "But they only let you take two bags on the
bus. How am I supposed to feed my family with two bags of groceries?"

Wilkson fanned herself with a piece of paper and sucked on a popsicle as she
talked. The swamp cooler was broken, and her dimly lit home's interior was
meticulously neat but stiflingly hot.

"I know I could buy more for my family" if there were a supermarket nearby,
Wilkson said. "It's so expensive to go across the street, and you wind up
getting lots of junk food. That's all they have."

"My kids love fruit, but I can't buy it. I would like to have cheaper things
that I could afford," Wilkson said. "I want things like that to be
reasonable for me to get for my kids."

Wilkson's refrigerator held an empty bottle of Sunny Delight, two gallon
milk jugs -- one empty, one full -- a box of Captain Crunch, tubs of
margarine and a single head of iceberg lettuce. The freezer is stacked with
frozen French fries, and some meat that she bought on sale.

Mahany said education, especially for children and their parents, is a
critical factor in creating a generation of healthier kids. He said a
variety of programs are being tried by a variety of agencies to help
Adelanto shape up.

Women Infants and Children

For instance, the lowest-income city in the Victor Valley didn't even have a
Women Infants and Children office until last year. WIC is a federal program
that distributes coupons for nutritious foods to needy families.

According to the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, "WIC
participation and, to a lesser extent, the food stamp program were
associated with higher-quality diets."

That's good as far as it goes, Mahany said. He pointed out that the coupons
-- for milk, cereal, baby food, and so on -- don't do much good if a parent
can't get to a grocery store to redeem them.

Mahany said Healthy Communities is attacking the problem from other angles,
as well. School outreach, bus vouchers, cooking classes where parents can
learn to make cheap, healthy meals, are all pieces to the puzzle, he said.

That puzzle won't be complete until Adelanto has a grocery store, though.
Wilkson said she's doing her best, but until she has other options she'll be
shopping for most of her groceries at the Circle K.

"It's highway robbery. But you do what you have to survive," she said. "We
need a place to shop. It's really, really bad, and I can't stress that
enough."

Nikki Cobb can be reached at 760-951-6277 or nikki_cobb@link.freedom.com.




  • [Livingontheland] Obtaining nutritious food is a challenge for those without transportation, Tradingpost, 03/22/2004

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