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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

What's for Dinner? Food Deserts in North Carolina Communities

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Tuesday, February 25, 2014   

CORNELIUS, N.C. - Not everyone in North Carolina has access to affordable, fresh food, and this week state lawmakers are taking up the problem of "food deserts" and what to do about them. The term refers to communities without retailers of wholesome food. A bill (HB 957) before the State Assembly aims to encourage the delivery and availability of nutrient-rich foods in identified food-desert zones.

According to Robin Emmons of Charlotte, the founder of Sow Much Good, which aims to provide direct access to affordable and fresh food to communities that face food insecurity, something needs to be done.

"It's a huge problem and, of course, those are the populations where disproportionately they're suffering from chronic illnesses that are really really directly related to lifestyle, and that specifically goes to their nutritional intake," she said.

The Food Desert Zones bill was discussed in a House Committee on Food Desert Zones on Monday. Since 2008, Sow Much Good has donated two tons of organic fruits and vegetables to food-assistance programs. The organization also sells produce at reduced prices at stands in low-income neighborhoods.

Emmons said one way lawmakers could help alleviate the problem in food deserts is to tie providing quality, healthy food to a store's ability to accept SNAP benefits.

"Any retailer that pops up a store is allowed to accept SNAP benefits. You should be required, in my opinion, to carry some real food - not just a package of hot dogs and a loaf of foam-white bread," Emmons declared.

The Food Desert Zones Bill was initially introduced last year, but failed to make it to a vote.



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