“Across Chicago, we are working to replace former food deserts with grocery stores and access to fresh food in every community,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement. “This agreement will not just ensure residents of South Shore have a neighborhood grocery store, it will create new jobs and make the community even stronger.” The city says its food desert population decreased by more than 31 percent between 2011 and 2017, based on the number of people who live more than one mile from a store of 10,000 square feet or more that sells produce. Chicago has 21 more grocery stores now than it did three years ago and twice the number of farmers markets, the city said.