When Kansas City resident Taryn Hodison attempted to have groceries delivered this week from the Hy-Vee grocery store in Prairie Village to her parents’ home near 75th Street and Prospect Avenue, she came up empty.

Hodison was greeted with an automated message that read: “We can’t deliver to your location. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try a different address or change your order to pickup.”

But her parents’ house is well within the store’s five-mile service area. Surely the fact that they live east of Troost Avenue — Kansas City’s not-so-invisible dividing line — was not the problem, right?

Click to resize

Hy-Vee and DoorDash, which was providing the delivery service, have offered multiple explanations that didn’t quite add up.

Hodison, a licensed therapist, was understandably alarmed by the lack of options for grocery delivery in neighborhoods east of Troost. Her parents are in their 70s. They are shut in amid the coronavirus outbreak that has prompted stay-at-home orders from state and local governments.

COVID-19 has claimed more than three dozen lives in the Kansas City area. And seniors are particularly vulnerable to the virus.

“In a time of crisis, it’s time to reevaluate how lower income and minorities are served,” Hodison said. “We are seeing African Americans dying and becoming infected with the coronavirus at higher rates in major cities. There’s a reason for that.”

Access to quality food should not depend on where a family lives. But for too long, Kansas City has given short shrift to these neighborhoods, and families who make their homes east of Troost Avenue have had painfully few options for basic life necessities.

Such disparities have only been exacerbated by the coronavirus lockdown, as everyone’s world has grown smaller. Food deserts have become all the more isolated, and leaving the house to go in search of fresh produce or toilet paper has become perilous.

Hy-Vee recently shuttered its fulfillment center and in-house delivery services in the metro area. So, the Iowa-based grocer partnered with DoorDash to deliver goods ordered from Hy-Vee’s website.

Shipt and Instacart, two other on-demand delivery services, were contracted as well.

But, as evidenced by Hodison’s experience, the Hy-Vee and DoorDash partnership is off to a rocky start.

Hy-Vee officials initially tried to explain away the lack of delivery service east of Troost by saying that DoorDash was short-staffed and did not have enough drivers to serve those neighborhoods, even though they fell within the delivery area. Days later, though, both companies offered a different response, saying that the glitch amounted to an oversight.

The area where Hodison’s parents live was not activated within the delivery system. As of Wednesday, residents living in the 64132 ZIP code were finally eligible for service.

The situation wasn’t addressed until questions were raised by The Star Editorial Board.

Hodison’s own residence in the West Plaza neighborhood is a little more than four miles away from the Hy-Vee in Prairie Village at 75th Street and State Line Road. Grocery delivery there is not an issue, she said.

“What message are we sending?” she said. “Are we going to cut folks off because of where they live? Just deliver the groceries.”

Decades ago, redlining and other discriminatory housing practices pushed black families in Kansas City east of Troost. Generations later, the remnants of inequality and structural racism are still prevalent.

Life expectancy is much shorter in many Kansas City neighborhoods east of Troost. For example, a black man living in the 64128 zip code can expect to live to be 68 years old, while a white woman living near the Country Club Plaza has a life expectancy of 85 years.

Several socioeconomic indicators contribute to the discrepancy including social, economic and environmental factors. The dearth of quality food sources in many neighborhoods contributes to health issues.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, eliminating barriers to a healthy lifestyle must be a priority, said Qiana Thomason, president and CEO of the Health Forward Foundation, formerly the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.

“This pandemic illustrates the deep-rooted inequalities in our society,” Thomason said. “Food, above anything else, is the No. 1 predictor of health. Not enough attention is being placed on that. Period.”

To their credit, both Hy-Vee and DoorDash worked to rectify the delivery issue once it became public. And it should be said that grocery store employees and those who deliver our groceries are performing vital work for the public good during this perilous time.

Going forward, both Hy-Vee and DoorDash should provide the same level of service for all customers — including those in underserved neighborhoods.