Why Opening Grocery Stores Alone Doesn’t Solve Food Deserts — ProPublica

hard problems generally don't have singularly solutions. food desserts being yet another example in a long list that impedes communities from growing stronger together.

the fact that lower income communities having to face higher prices for necessities is painful to read, knowing it's just one of a long list that stand in the way to improved health, wealth, mobility and more.

The community of Cairo, Illinois, once a food desert, welcomed its new market last year with balloons and cheers. But the store is struggling — exposing problems with the programs set up to help. Many stores that receive subsidies shutter their doors soon after opening or fail to open at all, and Illinois' record is similarly disappointing. The main concern with them is prices, as emerging stores struggle for many reasons. Food deserts are, by definition, areas with depressed economies and often declining populations, but certain problems repeatedly bubble to the top. Government funding for grocery stores is important to overcoming high startup costs, but without broader solutions to keep these stores open, "we're throwing money away."