Food Apartheid

Alex Gerner likes to start her days sipping coffee as […]

With the few grocery stores and continuing food apartheid in South Dallas, community organizers have established urban farms and community gardens. While the projects have fostered a sense of community, to what extent have they improved food access?

Bonton Farms, Kroger and the Innercity Community Development Corporation are partnering to bring South Dallas neighbors a new grocery option: Grocery Connect. 

Gipson Grocery store converted into a one-stop shop with many services aimed to strengthen its community members.

Phase 4 of the month-long food park aimed to create a community environment for South Dallas residents and businesses of color.

Already, 65,000 people in DFW are enrolled in Amazon’s SNAP delivery program, but the company found that people who live in “food deserts” weren’t using the service, so launched a new outreach program Jan. 1.

Southpoint is proving to be a miracle in this sparsely populated South Dallas neighborhood between Al Lipscomb and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. Access to healthy, affordable food has been among the top concerns for residents here.

Highland Hills fresh foods grocery store, Save-U-More, struggles to stay open and widen the food desert gaps happening in South Dallas.

It’s a tragic irony that the largest agriculture promoter in the state, the State Fair of Texas, is surrounded by a food desert, the neighborhood of South Dallas.

MLK Food Park organizers say City of Dallas rules around food trucks encourage the kinds of fried delicacies that Dallasites can find en masse at the State Fair of Texas but discourage healthy options. That’s why they created a mobile food task force to examine Dallas’ food policies for special events.

A new neighborhood grocery store in South Dallas is part of Cornerstone Baptist Church's overall vision for a healthy community.

Aunt Bette's food pantry at St. Philip's in South Dallas is set up like a grocery store to provide choices to hungry neighbors. This can create the kind of positive psychological environment conducive to healthy consumer habits, experts say.

"Most people that come to our [Red Bird] food pantry come to it as a last resort, when their food stamps have run out at the end of the month,” says Katie Peters, who manages community relations at Crossroads Community Services. “The unique thing about our community partners is that they typically have recurring clients."

In an effort to address food insecurity in the community, Cornerstone Baptist Church is opening Southpoint Community Market, a neighborhood grocery store that will sell fresh and affordable food.

Jubilee Market in Waco has attracted the attention of city leaders from across Texas looking for innovative ways to provide affordable and nutritious foods in low-income neighborhoods. However, Jubilee may be a unicorn, because it relies on a leader who lives in the neighborhood, a strong base of supporters and a financial safety net.

Community gardens have been a way of life for people in South Dallas for years. Without a nearby grocery store, residents have often had to rely on their own gardening skills for fresh fruits and vegetables.

The idea formed a few years ago, when UNT Dallas biology professor Kelly Varga took her students to the Mill City neighborhood to help clean up a community farm. The woman who ran the farm told Varga she saw a need in her neighborhood for quality food and a healthy outlet for young people.

The Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Free Press, in partnership with the national Solutions Journalism Network, are looking for a reporter to spend the next five months reporting on "food apartheid" in Dallas.

More than 300 of Restorative Farms’ GroBoxes are now producing basil, okra, peppers and more in backyards, front yards and patios across Dallas, including more than 50 in South Dallas.