There's finally a little push underway to do something about the *50-square-mile "food desert" in South LA (a zone where high-quality, affordable food is hard to come by, especially without a car). Food-buying opportunities in the area have long been limited to corner stores, whose offerings are usually pre-packaged, not at all healthy or fresh. A project to make such stores more useful has begun at Alba Snacks & Services, at Vermont and Sixtieth (once called the $1 Warehouse)—it's undergone a conversion, renaming, and remodel, and now offers fresh fruit and healthy snacks like applesauce, reports Intersections South LA. This is just the first phase of the project; the goal is to have the store stock 50 percent fresh, healthy foods and to have other stores follow suit.
And on Slauson near Central Avenue, the full-service Northgate Gonzalez Market is already up and running in the new Juanita Tate Marketplace; JT was the first new shopping center built in the area in 40 years, Councilmember Curren Price told ISLA.
Outside of formal supermarkets, there's also a new farmers' market at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall, began in November last year, and the South LA-based Community Services Unlimited, which has weekly produce stands at Exposition Park and offers CSA-style produce boxes pre-stocked with organic, locally-grown produce for pick-up at locations throughout South LA.
· South LA corner stores turn full-service [ISLA]
· South LA residents shop for employment at Juanita Tate Marketplace [ISLA]
· Mapping Los Angeles's Crazy Uneven Access to Healthy Living [Curbed LA]
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