Eating “five fruits and vegetables a day” is impossible for the inhabitants of the suburbs of Jacksonville. In the United States, the problem is known, it even bears the nickname of “food desert”. These areas, strongly affected by poverty and poorly served by transport, do not allow the inhabitants to obtain healthy and fresh food such as fruits and vegetables.
“It’s really exhausting. Sitting outside her home on a Jacksonville street lined with faded blue buildings, Brenda Jenkins expresses a simple wish: to be able to buy fresh produce near her home.
A daily reality for the majority of the urban population, this desire is inaccessible to some 39 million Americans who, like this 26-year-old African-American, live in a “food desert”, a nickname given to areas with high poverty rates. , where no shops selling fruits and vegetables are easily accessible.
The name can be misleading. It’s less about the total absence of shops than the impossibility of getting there, in a country where the car is king, but expensive.
A lack of supermarket
In the almost entirely African-American neighborhood of Brenda Jenkins, despite being located in a large city in North Florida, gas stations, fast food outlets and small convenience stores make up for the glaring absence of a supermarket.
Strolling through the shelves of one of these shops, sweets, crisps, sodas or cookies are legion. Almost impossible, on the other hand, to find fresh produce – only a handful of apples and bananas, placed near the checkout, give the impression.
The poorest have no choice but to shop there, as the public transport system is poorly developed. On foot, the trip to the nearest supermarket would take almost an hour.
Brenda Jenkins, mother of three young children, has a vehicle, and often drives her neighbors who don’t have one. “But if I moved, if I was busy, how would they shop? »
Several times, when her car broke down, she was forced to make do with “industrial products”, without nutritional value, from the local grocery store. “And that’s not healthy, especially for children. »
“Human Right”
Once prosperous, the area has gradually become impoverished over the past few decades, becoming less profitable for supermarket chains. When the last one closed, “people lost access to healthy food,” says Mika Hardison-Carr, who runs a community garden, White Harvest Farms.
The urban farm, created by the Clara White Mission association with the help of public funds, offers free products to volunteers who participate in the gardening program, and other residents can buy them using the food stamps that many depend on.
In addition to providing access to fresh products, the association tries to teach its consumers how to reintegrate them into their daily lives. Indeed, over time, locals get used to living in a food desert and eating “processed or canned goods,” adds Mika Hardison-Carr, a freshly hand-picked kumquat and a straw hat on the head.
Junk food “contributes to all these health problems that make us die younger, that we are sicker, fatter,” says the young African-American woman. “I believe that having access to fresh and healthy products should be a human right. she concludes.
Easy-to-eliminate food deserts
On this fall day, when the sweltering Florida heat is starting to get milder, a few people are busy in the garden.
To attract the public, the farm notably grows essential products of southern African-American cuisine, such as collards.
Some neighbors “have already come to ask when the vegetables would be ready, but we have just planted them! laughs Nicole Boone, a 43-year-old volunteer and beneficiary who joined the program from its inception in 2021.
A little further, Sarah Salvatore, one of the managers of the place, plants flowers that attract insects, avoiding the use of pesticides for vegetables.
“I think food deserts are very easy to eliminate,” she says, crouching near the plants.
“We have to elect people who are ready to invest energy in solving these problems, because it is possible to solve them, we simply lack the funds. »