Photo: Canva
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson is conducting a feasibility study to determine whether the city could open a municipally owned grocery store in an underserved neighborhood on the South or West side.
At least six grocery stores, including four Walmart locations, have closed on Chicago’s South and West sides over the past two years.
“All Chicagoans deserve to live near convenient, affordable, healthy grocery options,” Johnson said in a statement. “We know access to grocery stores is already a challenge for many residents, especially on the South and West sides ... I am proud to work alongside partners to take this step in envisioning what a municipally owned grocery store in Chicago could look like.”
Last year, Chicago awarded a $13.5 million community investment grant to minority-owned company Yellow Banana to refurbish and reopen six grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides.
This past August, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed the Illinois Grocery Initiative, freeing up $20 million to invest in food deserts across the state “by incentivizing the opening of grocery stores, by independent grocers or local governments, in affected communities across the state.”
According to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 63.5% of residents in West Englewood on the Southwest side of Chicago and 52% of residents in East Garfield Park on the West side live more than half a mile from their nearest grocery store.
Smaller municipalities have opened grocery stores, but Chicago would be the first major city to do so.
Expanding grocery access not only makes it easier for residents to purchase food, the city noted, but it keeps those dollars in the neighborhood.
“Not dissimilar from the way a library or the postal service operates, a public option offers economic choice and power to communities,” said Ameya Pawar, senior advisor at Economic Security Project, a partner on the initiative. “A city-owned grocery store on the South or West side of Chicago would be a viable way to restore access to healthy food in areas that have suffered from historic and systemic disinvestment.”
Sam Sánchez, a prominent Chicago restaurateur, tweeted that the initiative had a “noble intention” but the city would be “operating in the red and [losing] tax payers money.”
“Control crime and business will come,” Sanchez added.