Brian Gordon. “Food deserts in the Port City: Limited access endangers health, and this town is fed up”. Star-News (Wilmington, NC), August 23, 2021 Monday. advance-lexis-com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:63FG-D7D1-DXVP-V272-00000-00&context=1516831. Accessed April 18, 2022.

In this article Brian goes to speak about the food deserts in Port City and the toll it’s taken on it’s residence. There once existed a super market in the neighborhood that was burned down 5 years ago and had no markets to replace it. Due to that many people have now lost access to fresh foods and the community fights for easy access produce. It follows several people and shows their struggle to get food and eat healthy. People who have been living in this community have seen the affects of a dip in their local community be a direct corelation to markets not entering their neighborhoods. While this particular community is suffering there is a tourist destination filled with markets restaurant and a great amount of food that neighboring communities only wish to have. Instead they have bodegas with quick unhealthy foods and a pitiful shelf of half browning and rotten produce like potatoes, tomatoes and lemons. While the community is putting their efforts into establishing a supermarket businesses like dollar general are establishing locations in these communities that provide no fresh produce and instead highly processed canned goods that local citizens can afford.

The only seeming hope for these citizens is mobile food pantry and the inevitable gentrification increasing the median household and therefore increasing the possibility of having a market. These mobile pantries are allowing citizens to introduce healthy produce into their diets and the possibility of students learning about eating healthier and overall giving the citizens a healthier lifestyle. 

This last article brought the negative emotions that most residents in food deserts feel. For the most part many videos and articles that I have consumed always leave with a positive note on how the issue is slowly being resolved and the quality of life increasing. This article though was realistic and did not sugar coat the negatives of food insecurity. Many in the end of this article believing that they will not see the change they wish in their lifetime. Many thought have settled for the little change that has already been shown and are navigating their lives to fit these updates. They await for higher ups. While traditional markets may not see profits being made in these communities the people living their still deserve to eat. Eating healthy foods should not be a luxury but a right. 

“Forty years is a long time to be talking about this,” said Sonya Green, 75, a lifelong Northside resident. “We’ve been trying forever to get a real-life grocery store. I’m mystified why nothing’s come.”

Within this vacuum, local officials, advocates and ordinary residents like Green strive to solve an intractable reality: that a person’s race, income or zip code predicts their likelihood of getting diabetes, heart disease, and living a shorter life.”