How to Get Healthy Food Into Corner Stores, Rural Markets – AJMC.com Managed Markets Network

A report from The Meals Trust offers pointers and case studies on exactly how to grab fruits and vegetables to the customers that historically have actually had much less access to them.

Published Online: February 24, 2016

Mary Caffrey
It’s well-documented that the rising rates of diabetes and obesity in the United States haven’t fallen evenly across the population—the poor, minorities, and rural residents are much more most likely to be affected. African American women are especially most likely to be obese.^1-2

Improving one’s diet regimen can easily be simpler said compared to done, however. You can’t consume just what you can’t buy, and Americans that rely on corner stores or rural Meals markets for most or all their Meals could not see fresh make or meat on the shelves. Store owners, 63% of whom are single-store operations, could locate these items too costly to or impractical to stock—that is, if they can easily grab these items in the very first place. 

A recent report, “Healthy and balanced Meals and Small Stores: Strategies to Close the Distribution Gap,”³ published by The Meals Trust along with support from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, outlines strategies for getting fresh fruit and vegetables in to corner stores and bodegas in cities, and in to remote rural markets. These outlets, which number 152,000 across the United States, may not be seen as money-makers by traditional Meals distributors.

The report features several case studies and offers policy assistance for state and local governments to make it worthwhile to grab Healthy and balanced Meals across that “last mile,” the most expensive portion of the distribution chain as soon as it reaches the retail outlet—and potential customers.

The policy prescriptions follow the February 2015 report from the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC). In making guidance for just what would certainly become the nation’s official nourishment policy, the panel, for the very first time, gathered evidence concerning US dietary patterns, and declared, “Good health disparities exist in population access to affordable Healthy and balanced food.”⁴

Thus, DGAC said, it’s not enough to tell people and families just what to eat—Healthy and balanced consuming on a population basis demands action from society to make certain that individuals have actually access to good Meals in the very first place.

Handling perishables challenges small stores, which regularly lack the knowledge, staff, or suppliers willing to job along with them to move the product on a book that won’t see the store gone money. Yet customer demands for Healthy and balanced Meals are increasing, and the report finds that along with creativity, this is an opportunity to be seized.

Recommendations include:

·         much more research to assess market demands, already know local demographics, and mapping of existing initiatives to locate potential partnerships. Expansion of current efforts will certainly require post on just what individuals buy, just what they will certainly pay, and just what marketing efforts worked.

·         Policy efforts at every one of levels—local, state, and federal—to offer tax incentives to stock Healthy and balanced foods, support Healthy and balanced small stores, and eliminate barriers that prevent small shops from taking USDA nourishment benefits.

·         Corporate support is required across the board. Suppliers should lower delivery minimums, refrigeration manufacturers are required to equip small stores to preserve produce. Existing programs, such as Partnership for a Healthier America, offer an area to start.

·         Develop programs to train store owners in managing produce, or alternately, make partnerships that let small stores lease space to entrepreneurs for “make only” sections.

References

1.       CDC website. 2014 National Diabetes Statistics Report. (For rural information, view county degree data.) http://ift.tt/1pigOm3.
2.       CDC website. Adult obesity facts. (For differences by race view obesity prevalence maps.) http://ift.tt/QmS6xj.
3.       Bentzel D., Weiss S., Bucknum M. and Shore K. (2015). Healthy and balanced Meals and Small Stores: Strategies to Close the Distribution Gap. Philadelphia, PA: The Meals Trust.
4.      Scientific report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. US Office of Illness Prevention and Good health Promotion website. http://ift.tt/1Jsez8G. Published and accessed February 18, 2015.