Julia Tedesco & Mitch Gruber

The closing of Constantino’s Market in College Town should lead us to reassess the way we think about “food deserts.” Constantino’s was supposed to eliminate a food desert, which is how Sen. Schumer was able to secure $740,000 in funding for Action for a Better Community to facilitate the project. The Upper Mt. Hope and Highland Park neighborhood associations supported the effort, as they lamented years of failed attempts to attract a supermarket.

The USDA defines a food desert as a neighborhood that lacks a nearby grocery store, but its definition has always been fluid. Its aim is to understand the relationship between a supermarket’s location and an individual’s ability to eat a wholesome diet. How close does a supermarket have to be for someone to access all of the food groups?

The reality is that there is not a single measure of distance that defines food access. The conversation about food deserts is truly a conversation about poverty. A person living in poverty within one mile of a supermarket may have more difficulty supporting healthful behavior and accessing a nutritious diet than a middle-class individual who owns a car and lives 10 miles from the nearest grocery.

The Upper Mt. Hope and Highland Park neighborhoods are not food deserts. Both census tracts have poverty rates under 20 percent, whereas many Rochester neighborhoods have a rate of 40 percent or higher.

One exception in these neighborhoods is Pinnacle Place on S. Goodman Street, an affordable housing community with 407 units for low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities. Pinnacle Place is a true food desert, as most tenants do not own cars and shop for food at a nearby 7-Eleven and Dollar Store. Residents with sufficient health and mobility typically depend on multiple buses to reach supermarkets.

Neither the existence nor the loss of Constantino’s impacted the problem of food deserts like Pinnacle Place in Rochester.

While we sympathize with residents who want a nearby supermarket, the federal government should not have sponsored the establishment of private business in a thriving neighborhood. If the USDA wants a solution to food deserts, it needs to invest in projects that impact impoverished people suffering from chronic food insecurity.

The private sector may not be able to eliminate food deserts in 2016; the grocery industry is notoriously low-margin. Rather than using public dollars to attract private businesses, we should invest in accountable, non-profit activities that increase access to nutritious food.

Foodlink’s mission focuses on the elimination of food deserts, through both charitable and market-based approaches. Our Curbside Market, a mobile farmer’s market, sells fresh and affordable produce in housing communities throughout Rochester, including Pinnacle Place. We stop at over 60 sites per week in low-income neighborhoods, accept SNAP benefits, and provide nutrition education workshops.

The Curbside Market is not the only solution to food deserts, but it is far more effective than the Constantino’s model. To address food insecurity, a key public health crisis, we need to invest in strategic, financially sustainable, and mission-based—not profit-based—interventions that increase the availability of affordable, nutritious foods in low-income neighborhoods.

Julia Tedesco is executive director and Mitch Gruber is director of Programs and Innovation at Foodlink.