A corner may have been turned this September when Pete’s Fruit Market had its grand opening in Bronzeville. This neighborhood, like many others in Milwaukee, was considered a food desert—an area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, leaving residents to depend on the corner stores and gas stations that usually lack nutritional food. With the opening of Pete’s Fruit Market, Bronzeville residents have a new, convenient, cost-friendly, healthy grocery store to shop in.

Anne Tsitiridis (stepdaughter of Pete’s Fruit Market owner Pete Tsitiridis) says that since the store’s doors opened the community has supported the business and even thanked the family for coming to their neighborhood. “We’ve felt very welcomed,” says Anne. “We hope our store brings jobs and a sense of community.”

As far back as 1992, Pete Tsitiridis decided to help the community by bringing healthy, affordable food to the people. He opened his first Pete’s Fruit Market on 16th Street and Greenfield Avenue, which has become a loyal partner to the South Side community. The North Side’s embrace of the location shows that residents see a need for a change—a change in the way they eat.

Hunger Task Force Executive Director Sherrie Tussler identifies five neighborhoods in Milwaukee that don’t have access to a nearby grocery store: Amani, McGovern Park, Harambee, Sherman Park and Merrill Park. She believes it’s possible to increase access to healthier food options if the community works toward that goal. Tussler says one of the best ways to get people to change their diets and go the healthier route is by broadening their experience with different foods. “You have to try new things,” she explains.

‘Life is in the Food’

Taste-testing may have been on Maya Bentley’s mind when she opened Country Fresh Kitchen (5224 W. Center St.) this past July to fight for better food options in her neighborhood. Country Fresh Kitchen, a restaurant supplied by Oasis Fresh Foods grocery market, serves organic Southern cooking. Bentley began teaching herself how to eat healthy after her father died in 2015 from cancer linked to a poor diet.

With Country Fresh Kitchen, Bentley hopes to change the narrative. She doesn’t want to see others experience what she went through, so she’s educating her community through her restaurant. To get out of the food desert, we must first start with ourselves, said Bentley. Access to healthy grocery stores and restaurants is one thing; changing mentalities about the importance of good food is another. She adds that urban farming is essential in eliminating food deserts. “I understand that life is in the food,” Bentley says. “Our people don’t have to be dependent on welfare if you start growing.”

Friends of the Shepherd Help support Milwaukee's locally owned free weekly newspaper. LEARN MORE

SIDEBAR: Growing Power and Green Veterans Urban farming was still a largely unknown concept in 1993 when Growing Power began as a program that offered inner-city Milwaukee teens an opportunity to work by growing food for their community. Read article >>

Country Fresh Kitchen serves organic eggs, rolls, grilled chicken, carrot rolls and lots of soups. Bentley encourages people not to eat beef or pork because those meats contain high sodium. She says her hardest task is educating people on the benefits of organic food. She noticed the owner of the business next to hers had trouble walking because his feet were swollen. He had been dealing with high blood pressure for years, so Bentley decided to help. She took the bitter melon seeds she orders from Africa and juiced them up for the man. Within days, his feet stop swelling. According to Bentley, bitter melon helps reduce blood glucose (sugar) levels and regulates the body’s use of insulin.

Bentley isn’t working alone. The Juice Kitchen owner Maanaan Sabir is also an advocate for providing the community with education about healthy foods while providing customers with healthy drink options. The Juice Kitchen (1617 W. North Ave.) provides fruit and vegetable-filled drinks that cleanse the body. “I add to their life,” he says of patrons. Sabir’s “Soul Food” drink contains sweet potatoes, oranges, lemons, limes, carrots and strawberries. According to Sabir, drinking juices like Soul Food delivers oxygen to the blood. He compares juicing to drugs because it gives the body a type of high; a healthy high. You can drink these juices along with a meal, or you can go on a detox and just juice. Mentorship is also essential for escaping the food desert. “We must educate the youth on this topic, so by the time they’re older, they’ll be able to pass down that knowledge to the next generation,” Sabir says. Like Bentley, he advocates for urban farming as a local source for fresh produce.

Amaranth Bakery & Café owner David Boucher says one of the health issues facing the community is dependence on fast food. In business since 2006, Amaranth (3329 W. Lisbon Ave.) is dedicated to producing high-quality bakery items with organic and fair-trade ingredients. “If they come in here they’ve already taken steps to a healthier life,” says Boucher. He explains that unhealthy food is like an addiction, making us crave empty calories, which makes us eat more and leads to weight gain. Many people believe healthy food doesn’t taste as good as junk food, but Boucher says that’s false. It’s all about the seasonings, and once you learn that, switching over will be easier. Boucher is happy with the progress being made in Milwaukee, and he believes the food desert will not be a problem in the future. “When we first started this business, we felt like aliens,” said Boucher. “Now we’re pretty much [serving] common food.”

Getting Milwaukee Out of the Desert

Vegan chef Rain Truth believes Milwaukee needs more food gardens and—citing Venice Williams at Alice’s Garden (2136 N. 21st St.)—people who teach the community how to garden. For Truth, it’s all about finding different ways to change people’s lifestyles. Her catering business, The Cultured Vegan, has been around for 10 years and hosts workshops and vegan cooking demonstrations. Truth’s mother also had cancer, but unlike Bentley’s father, her mother survived by changing her diet. She knew at that moment she had to educate her people and to change lives.

Truth isn’t the only provider of vegan food in the African American community. Urban Beets’ owner Dawn Balistreri has been a vegan off and on for 25 years. She opened Urban Beets (1401 N. Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. Drive) because she believes Milwaukee is ready for the vegan lifestyle, and, she insists, “You don’t have to be vegan to eat vegan food.” Balistreri started as a vegetarian for health reasons but then became more sensitive to animals and the world. “I believe that the majority of our health comes from what we eat and what we don’t eat,” she says.

Awareness, education and activism are crucial. “This is and will be a community effort to get Milwaukee out of this desert, but it’s not impossible,” Bentley says. “There are leaders in the city who are currently fighting this issue, but it takes more than a few, because when we have numbers, we have more knowledge and power. We don’t have all the answers; however, we have the ambition to go forward.”