Two blocks from the sea, in the middle of luxury hotels and tall apartment towers that overlook Biscayne Boulevard, in the best part of Downtown Miami, the money is in sight.
There is no crisis or pandemic here, or at least it doesn’t seem like it. But you only have to walk five blocks to discover that there is another Miami. The one that cannot be seen, the one that exists in the shadow of opulence.
In Overtown, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, it is difficult to find nutritious food. What abounds are corner businesses that sell packaged goods, soft drinks, fast food, beer, tobacco and lottery tickets.
“I don’t buy in those little stores because there are no things to cook and it is very expensive,” says Zenaida Bonilla, a mother of four, while standing in line at a free food distribution center in La Street 12 with Third Avenue, in northwest Miami.
Overtown is one of the thousands “food deserts” in which they live 35 , 4 million people in the United States , according to Alana Rhone, an expert in the Food Economics Division of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA, for its acronym in English).
They are called deserts, he explains, but in reality they are neighborhoods where low-income people live with little access to healthy food.
One in seven people lives in one of them. And the serious thing is that your health is in danger.
“Those who live in food deserts are at risk of dying 15 years earlier than the rest of the population due to serious health problems, “says Dr. Armen Henderson, who works at the UHealth Tower hospital and is an academic at the University of Miami.
He knows it well, that more than one night he went to bed hungry when he was a minor and even lived on the street.
, Source: Source: USDA (This calculation considers an area where more than 100 houses do not have a vehicle and are more than half a mile from the nearest supermarket). , Image: “data-lazy-src =” https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/amp/idt2/470 / e5fcf 474-and115 – 4202 – 12564 – 69 e2cd 50 c 969 “loading =” lazy “src =” https://laopinion.com/wp-content/plugins/lazy-load-0.7/images/1×1.trans.gif “>
Poor nutrition contributes to development about cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, among many others.
And in the case of children it delays growth, it can impair their brain development , interfere with their learning and weaken the immune system.
The paradox is that we are not talking about a Latin American country sunk in poverty. This serious nutritional problem occurs in one of the richest countries in the world.
César Mendoza, a cardiologist at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, says that a large part of the patients who arrive at the center of health have not seen a doctor in many years and do not know the impact that a poor diet can have.
“The cardiovascular diseases continue to be the leading cause of death in the United States and in the world ”, says Mendoza.
Liberty City
Not far from the hospital is Liberty City, another historic food desert that in the decade of the 60 received many poor families who were displaced days of Overtown after the construction of the Interstate highway .
Converted into a ghetto with high levels of crime, the neighborhood has maintained for decades the marks of racial segregation that prevent the capital flow to the area. There are no large supermarkets, nor stores that sell fruits and vegetables.
In the middle of a desolate landscape, there is a small urban garden on the street 60 with the 16. Nicole Fowles takes care of it as if it were an oasis in the middle of the desert.
“Anyone can come here and take whatever they want. Everything is free ”, he says.
This is one of the eight urban gardens that the organization “Health in the Hood” has created in the deserts food store in Miami.
Its founder, Asha Loring, says that these gardens -funded with donors and public subsidies- allow to improve the diet of hundreds of families during some months of the year. ” . .
“The effort has been worth it”, he points out.
“No it is profitable “
” Large supermarkets do not settle in food deserts because it is not profitable, “explains Paco Velez, CEO of Feeding South Florida , a non-profit organization.
That makes people end up buying in the corner business and as there are businesses that give them credit, some families remain constantly in debt .
Velez believes that a good alternative would be to give incentives to those stores to sell, for example, frozen healthy food.
And what has been quite effective, he adds, are the stores mobile phones that sell natural products at a good price and that, at the same time, teach people to cook in a healthier way.
Where are they?
To identify where the food deserts are, the USDA produced a map. As it is a country of 410 million inhabitants, the task was not easy, and that is why they decided to use at least four major definitions.
The best known is one that defines a food desert as a place where the closest supermarket is more than a mile away ( 1.6 kilometers) in urban areas, already more than 10 miles (16 kilometers) in rural areas.
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However, for the economist Alana Rhone, it is better to include other criteria such as, for example, an area where more than 100 houses do not have a car and are more than 0.8 kilometers from the closest supermarket in an urban area.
Thus, depending on the definition used, the number of people who officially live in a food desert in the United States changes.
“Belt of or rust ”
In the middle of“ Rust Belt ”( Rust Belt ) is the city of Youngstown , Ohio, an area that decades ago was the cradle of the manufacturing industry and since the 70 has suffered a harsh deindustrialization process.
With a history tied to the glory days of steel production, today on 35% of Youngstown’s population lives in poverty and is riddled with food deserts.
Maraline Kubik, of the Mercy Health Foundation, says that in the communities where she works, people live in very precarious conditions.
“Many people have difficulties cooking at home, either because they have disconnected basic services or Or they don’t have a kitchen. ”
On the other hand, he says that it is very difficult to get to supermarkets, especially for older people.
The ride can take more than an hour when you add up the walks to the bus stop, connections, and wait times. And the biggest drawback is the return home loaded with bags.
“ This is an aging community . We have many elderly people, people with disabilities, grandparents who take care of their grandchildren, single mothers or fathers who have difficulties shopping far from home ”, explains Kubik.
Despite the difficulties , he adds, “we have many food distribution centers and soup kitchens.” The schools also provide breakfasts and lunches. And many people have access to food aid provided by the government through the so-called food stamps (food stamps).
There are other neighborhoods from Youngstown where the situation is less precarious, but equally difficult.
“There is no competition”
“Three years ago I had a stroke and I have trouble getting around, ”says Mary Jane Brooks, a woman from 75 years who get their food with the help of social organizations, neighbors or by home delivery.
Note that prices are still very high for your income level. “The problem is that there is no competition and that is why we have to pay what they charge you.”
Pamela agrees Huff, who had to change his eating habits due to health problems.
“ I had to teach myself to eat differently . I made an effort to eat healthy food and managed to lower the pressure. “, He says.
” One day I went to the doctor and he asked me what are you eating? Because I couldn’t believe my pressure was so low. Now whenever he has the opportunity he goes to the street farmers markets and takes the bus to go to the supermarket once every two weeks.
“I can only load four bags on the bus”, explains.
Some members of the Youngstown community such as Rose Carter, executive director of the social organization ACTION, have worked hard to improve the food conditions of the city.
“We organize fruit and vegetable markets with local farmers,” she says enthusiastically. “And we teach people to cook in a healthier way.”
He says that there are many innovative initiatives that have given good results such as a program of the organization Products Perks Midwest focused on people who receive social benefits, where for every dollar they spend on fruits and vegetables, receive one dollar to buy healthy food.
“Food Apartheid”
Jill Clark, a professor at the Ohio University School of Public Policy who has studied the subject in depth, does not like the expression “food deserts.”
“I’m going to challenge you,” he says. “They are not deserts, this is really a apartheid food, ”says Clark, arguing that in the United States food system there is segregation according to race, class and gender of people.
The areas where there is this “ apartheid ”, he adds, have been the subject of a practice with deep historical roots called redlining .
The redlining comes from the decade of 1930, when mortgages were denied to people from poor neighborhoods inhabited by ethnic minorities.
At that time the red color in financial maps to delimit “dangerous zones” where there was no and invest.
A red line that, over time, has made a big difference in access to better quality food.
“I live in a redlined neighborhood”
That Marilyn Burns, a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, has experienced firsthand.
“Where I live is a neighborhood that was marked with red lines. I live in a neighborhood redlined “. To your 69 years old, Burns lives in a social housing sector that is trying to get a government grant to be renovated.
“Cross your fingers because it would go a long way to lift the spirit of the community, ”says Burns. Social leader who for years has fought for the rights of his neighborhood, says that living in a apartheid food not only has to do with food.
“There is crime, domestic violence, drug addiction, armed violence…. there is no work either and we need more than a patch to solve the problem ”, he says.
“There are people here who sometimes don’t eat and those who do they do it, they usually eat food that is not healthy. ”
Despite all the difficulties, she explains that there are many ongoing social projects that seek to improve people’s nutrition and their working conditions. life.
“We are always looking for how to collaborate with other organizations and where to get resources to get ahead.” Although Burns insists that it is not only about economic resources.
“We must lift the spirits of the people . I always tell people that they are valuable, that life is worth living. ”
An innovative business model in Detroit
Another way to deal with the food problem is Raphael Wright’s project in Detroit, Michigan.
Living in a city where the 78% of the people are African-American, for years there has not been a food business where the owners are black.
With that in mind, Wright decided to create a store called Neighborhood Grocery, in the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood, to sell healthy food at convenient prices in a food desert where large supermarkets have no interest in investing.
Your project is based on the idea that their own neighbors are owners of a part of the business and that, to the extent that sales increase, the profits can be distributed or new investments made.
But it has not been easy to get the funds to invest to get the project going. “Now we have a crowd-founding campaign to receive donations,” says the entrepreneur.
Once opened, their idea is to replicate the shared property model in other neighborhoods. “I think I think this model is the future.”
OR n “ first world country with third world problems “
Back in Miami, Dr. Henderson argues that in that city there are problems of urban and racial segregation that affect people’s nutrition.
“When I walk through neighborhoods like Overtown or Liberty City, I think that the United States is a first world country with third world problems ”.
The incredible thing is that in just 18 minutes can be reached by car from Overtown to Miami Beach , passing by the side of a small island called Fisher Island, the place with the highest concentration of wealth in the entire United States, according to Bloomberg.
Fisher Island can only be entered if you are on a list of authorized persons. You can only enter Overtown or Liberty City during the day because the risk is too high at night.
As if you needed a pass to enter two universes separated by land and sea. And for the history of a country that once drew red lines on a map.
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