Ginnie Graham: Smaller is better when it comes to feeding food deserts

That’s the approach a local anti-hunger advocate says will work in getting food to neighborhoods that are starved of reasonably priced, quality food.

With Tuesday’s closure of Gateway Market, 1601 N. Peoria Ave., the problem of a food desert in north Tulsa only expands. The area joins west Tulsa and pockets in east and south Tulsa without a grocer within a mile of most residents.

“The big supermarket model does not fit for the community,” said Katie Plohocky, president of the Healthy Community Store Initiative in Tulsa. “We keep trying it, and it’s not working. We have to look at a different model.”

For six months, Plohocky and co-owner Scott Smith have been taking a mobile grocery store into Tulsa neighborhoods located in food deserts.

The Real Good Food Truck is part of the Healthy Community Store Initiative, which is an affiliate of the Tulsa Community Foundation that was launched in January.

Transportation is a big obstacle for people in low-income neighborhoods, as well as for older and disabled residents. City bus service often requires multiple transfers, limited routes in some areas of town and no service on Sundays.

Often, the amount and type of food a consumer can buy is limited by riding the bus. Some residents carry luggage or coolers on the bus to haul food home.

Plohocky said many north Tulsa residents were not shopping at Gateway because it was easier to get a city bus to the Wal-Mart Supercenter at 81st Street and Lewis Avenue.

“It was quicker for them to get on a bus with a straight shot there instead of the four-hour round trip to Gateway, even though it was technically closer,” Plohocky said.

Gateway Market was housed in a former Albertsons location. The store opened in 2010 after the building had sat empty for more than four years after Albertsons closed.

Antonio Perez, owner of Gateway Market, said the store closed because it was not making enough money to pay its bills. The $2.2 million in Community Development Block Grant loans he secured to operate the store will be repaid.

North Tulsa resident Billie Parker, who rented space in the building for an African-themed boutique, started meeting with a group — Community Unity North — that wants to attract another grocer.

“Everybody is upset, down and sad about this,” Parker said. “We can’t ever have something, and it’s pitiful. We want to get our own grocery store because we’re tired of begging for someone to let us buy food from them.”

The group is planning a farmer’s market and flea market from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 5-7 at 5210 N. Peoria Ave., Parker said.

“We’re going to start small, but we’ve got to start somewhere,” she said.

That next step could come in the fall, when a second phase of the Healthy Community Store begins, Plohocky said.

This is when areas in Tulsa will be identified for possible micro-stores — of about 3,000 to 5,000 square feet — operated by neighborhood residents.

Plohocky said the spaces will provide enough room, pointing out that the mobile store holds more than 600 products in a 224-square-foot area.

The mobile store is gathering data such as foot traffic, sales and inventory at its various stops.

“This way a person who might be interested in a store can see the market research,” Plohocky said. “There used to be 32 community-owned grocery stores, and we’d like to see that again.”

The initiative is working on creating a wholesale distribution network to keep costs low. Currently, it might take at least a $20,000-a-week order to get a wholesaler to do business with a store, Plohocky said.

Designing a smaller, cooperative-distribution model could lead to access to wholesale food prices, she said.

If a store can be successful in meeting the food needs in a neighborhood, it means one fewer stop for the mobile grocery truck. Attention can then be placed on other anti-hunger initiatives.

“If we can get something in the neighborhoods that can fix the systemic problem, then we can start moving in another direction,” Plohocky said.