Food Deserts in Chicago

Introduction to Food Deserts

You may be wondering-what is a food desert? There are many different definitions, but for the purpose of this assignment, the applicable definition will be that of the United States Department of Agriculture. According to a 2017 WTTW article by Alex Ruppenthal, “The U.S Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as an area with a poverty rate of at least 20 percent and where at least a third of the population lives more than a mile from a supermarket or large grocery store (3). Urban planners should be taking every step possible to eradicate food deserts. They serve as obstacles to sustainability everywhere they exist, as they are inequitable and pose as barriers to reducing poverty and living in a more environmentally friendly world.

What is A Food Desert?

Another question that you may have is- why is this an issue? Can’t the residents just go a little further to get their food? As mentioned previously, it is a challenge to sustainability for all three measures: environment, equity, and poverty. The further people have to travel to find a grocery store that sells healthy food, whether it be by car, bus, or another mode of transportation, it is likely that they are putting out more carbon emissions into the atmosphere. If grocery stores were closer, they would not have to travel as far and subsequently would not put as many emissions out. Moreover, As seen above in the quote from Ruppenthal, poverty and food deserts are intrinsically linked, as a certain level of poverty needs to be present for a food desert to exist. Finally, food deserts, especially in Chicago, are higher inequitable. In Food deserts persist in Chicago despite more food markets, it is illustrated that, “African Americans make up approximately one third of Chicago’s population, but almost 80 percent of the population of persistently low or volatile food access areas” (Kolak et. al 5). This inequity is a complete injustice. The lack of investment in Chicago’s African American community is appalling. Until food deserts are removed as a source of poverty for African Americans, they will continue to plague Chicago as a barrier to achieving sustainability in the region.


Verify: Living in a food desert


Food Deserts in Chicago

Food deserts range in size and shape all over the city of Chicago and its surrounding areas. As can be seen by Figure 1 and Figure 2 to the right, the majority of food deserts in Chicago are located on the South and West Sides, where most of the city’s African Americans live. Juxtaposing those two maps with Figure 3, it is easy to see that there is a connection between poverty and the food insecurity caused by food deserts.

This map, from the University of Chicago, shows the distribution of food deserts over time.

This map shows the location where poverty is concentrated across the city.

One such community plagued by a food desert is Englewood, located on the city’s Southwest Side.

This map shows the location of Englewood within the city of Chicago

Out of the entire state of Illinois, Englewood has the highest percentage of impoverished households. In the context of Chicago, it ranks fifth out of 77 neighborhoods in terms of economic hardship (Durocher 2). This shows that the community is not the most enticing for business to invest in, yet during his time as mayor, Rahm Emanuel sought to help the citizens of the community.

Combatting the food desert in Englewood was no easy task. In order to fight the spread of food deserts and get investment into Englewood, Mayor Emanuel and the City Council had to work to get a Whole Foods. According to a 2014 article in Chicago Business, “ The City Council has signed off on a $10.7 million grant that will support development of a 48,000-square-foot retail property anchored by Whole Foods Inc. in Englewood. The council approved the tax-increment financing (TIF) subsidy at the council meeting today, according to a statement issued by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration” (Maidenberg 1-2). The size of the grant given by the City Council speaks volumes- it shows that Whole Foods needed to be persuaded to put down in Englewood, most likely because they did not think they would be able to generate a large profit. This is a common issue that crops up while trying to eradicate food deserts, and it would be easily remedied if businesses would more often put the greater good above their bottom line. Additionally, it shows how dedicated to helping the citizens of Englewood the leadership of Chicago is.

"When I go in here, I don’t see the same people from the neighborhood. I see a lot of teachers and cops and people cruising through here trying to gentrify the area."

Not only did the Mayor’s Office seek to build this supermarket, they sought the opinion of the community. They did this in order to ensure that the Whole Foods would have the most successful impact it could possibly have. It has been stated that, “Since the announcement of the store in 2013, Englewood residents and Whole Foods Market teams have engaged in two-way conversations to ensure the new location on Chicago’s South Side would reflect the community it serves and meet the needs of those living and working in the area. From the early discussions, three key themes rose to the top for the company to focus on: food access; community engagement; and economic development and employment” (Mayor’s Press Office 5). By involving the community, Whole Foods and Mayor Emanuel are demonstrating that they want this project to work. As a result of finding those three key themes “food access; community engagement; and economic development and employment,” everyone involved in the project is charting a roadmap to revitalizing the community while ensuring that all basic needs are met.

It seems, however, that the Whole Foods project is one that is better on better than in reality. It does not appear as if the Whole Foods in Englewood is succeeding in the right ways to protect the community. In an article for the website Future for Food, Kate Durocher speaks to individuals in the Englewood community to gauge their reaction. She finds that, “Many agreed Whole Foods isn’t doing as much good as maybe they had hoped in the community. ‘When I go in here, I don’t see the same people from the neighborhood. I see a lot of teachers and cops and people cruising through here trying to gentrify the area,’ said Greg Goodman, 33, a teacher at the nearby Lindblom Math and Science Academy” (11-12). If people are “trying to gentrify the area,” that will most likely result in the displacement of the most at risk individuals. That would not be solving the problem posed by food deserts as much as it is kicking the can down the road for someone else to do with. One way to combat this potential gentrification and displacement could have been a community benefits agreement (CBA) to ensure that the community has access to new opportunities as a result of the development. That is something to consider for all projects moving forward, and a possibility could be making all grant money or tax breaks contingent on all parties agreeing to a CBA.


It appears that a negative community reaction to a project is not isolated solely to Chicago. A similar reaction occurred in Portland in 2013. City leaders came up with an expensive project to bring a Trader Joe’s to a vacant lot in the Albina neighborhood. The lot was located in a food desert. However, the community viewed it as another instance of attempted displacement of African Americans in the community (Morrison 25-26). Community displeasure is a common symptom of urban planning, but this displeasure must be taken as a form of constructive criticism to ensure that the community’s needs are meet at the highest level.

This Natural Grocers, which was found to be a better fit for the community, stands in place of the proposed Trader Joe's in Portland, Oregon.

Despite the initial negative reaction, Portland leaders still wanted to move forward with the project to combat the local food desert. To ensure success, they met with the community. According to an article for Oregon Public Broadcasting, Portland officials sat down with neighbors and activists to create a community benefits agreement that would become a new standard for their development projects throughout the city (Morrison 29). As a result of the community’s negative reaction, something good came about- protection for the residents. While the Trader Joes was not brought in to curb the food desert, eventually a grocery store that was more in line with the values of the community came in. This shows that it is possible to find a middle ground that benefits everyone in the process, it just has to be found.

Possible Solutions

It is apparent to me that there are several ways to prevent the growth of any more food deserts and reduce the number of existing ones, especially in Chicago. The three things I think would be the most beneficial are:

  • Increased Community Engagement
  • Tax Breaks for Larger Grocery Stores
  • Microcredit Loans for Mom-and-Pop Stores

To begin, it is obvious that community engagement is an integral part of the planning process. As seen above, it is impossible to please everyone, even with multiple instances of community feedback on projects design to help. Yet that does not mean community engagement and feedback should be cut out of the process.  By considering the above examples, an improper amount of engagement can have severe negative consequences, and as a result it appears that an increased level of dialogue is a good thing.

Next up is tax breaks for large grocery stores. The precedent set by Rahm Emanuel in getting a Whole Foods to come to Englewood should be emulated. Later in Emanuel’s administration, Chicago tried to win the bid for Amazon’s HQ2. In order to persuade Jeff Bezos’s Seattle-based company to settle in Chicago, Emanuel’s team put forth a large packed. It is detailed that, “One of the more aggressive bids comes from Chicago, Illinois — a city that is prepared to let Amazon keep $1.32 billion of the personal income taxes paid by its workers annually. According to The Chicago Reader, employees would still pay the full taxes; but instead of Illinois receiving the money to use for civic infrastructure, Amazon would get to pocket it” (Garfield 3). If city governments are willing to give such high tax breaks for large corporations, should they be willing to do the same to ensure that their most vulnerable citizens have access to good food? For example, for the value of the tax breaks ($1.32 billion) that the city of Chicago was going to give Amazon, they would have been able to fund the construction of over a hundred and twenty Whole Foods, based on the tax breaks divided by the grant the city gave Whole Foods to entice them into Englewood.

My final suggestion is microcredit loans for mom-and-pop grocery stores. I think large stores are a great idea, but I feel that exploring them as the only option severely limits other solutions. Small businesses are an integral part of the economy, and municipal governments should seek to promote them as well. Food deserts are not just an urban phenomenon, and a New York Times article from 2017 details the relationship between mom-and-pop stores and food deserts in rural areas, “ Across the country, mom-and-pop markets are among the most endangered of small-town businesses, with competition from corporations and the hurdles of timeworn infrastructure pricing owners out. … The phenomenon is a “crisis” that is turning America’s breadbaskets into food deserts, said David E. Procter, a Kansas State University professor whose work has focused on rural food access, erasing a bedrock of local economies just as rural communities face a host of other problems” (Turkewitz 5-6). This shows that big box stores are not the only solution. If we are able to protect small mom-and-pop stores, food deserts in small towns can be prevented. Therefore, it stands to hypothetically reason that a mom-and-pop store on the South Side of Chicago would serve the same purpose, employing local residents and providing good food to some of society’s most vulnerable. In order to do that, cities should incentivize small stores just as much as they do larger ones. One way to do this would be offering micro-credit loans, which is a small loan designed to jump start small businesses. This could be extremely effective in fighting the spread of food deserts.

In conclusion, food deserts are a problem across the world, but especially in Chicago. By disproportionately affecting African Americans, they demonstrate severe inequity and the need to fix these injustices. That is not to say there is no path forward. By following the example set forth by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and community leaders in Portland, it is clear to see that a world where food deserts are a thing of the past and where everyone has fair access to healthy food is possible.

Works Cited

Bauld, Andrew. “Food Deserts Don't Benefit from More Supermarkets in Chicago, Study Finds.” University of Chicago News, news.uchicago.edu/story/food-deserts-dont-benefit-more-supermarkets-chicago-study-finds.

Durocher, Kate. “Gentrification, Whole Foods, and Food Deserts.” Future of Food, 15 Oct. 2019, futurefood.fm/gentrification-whole-foods-food-deserts/.

Garfield, Leanna. “Chicago Wants to Give over $1 Billion in Taxes from Workers at Amazon's New Headquarters Back to Amazon.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 27 Nov. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/amazon-headquarters-hq2-city-incentives-taxes-2017-11.

Kolak, Marynia. “Food Deserts Persist in Chicago despite More Supermarkets.” Chicago Reporter, 14 Oct. 2018, www.chicagoreporter.com/food-deserts-persist-in-chicago-despite-more-supermarkets/.

Maidenberg, Micah. “City Council Approves $10.7 Million Subsidy for Englewood Whole Foods.” Crain's Chicago Business, 2 Apr. 2014, www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20140402/CRED03/140409929/chicago-city-council-approves-10-7-million-subsidy-for-englewood-whole-foods.

Mayor's Press Office. “Mayor Emanuel And Whole Foods Market Open New Store In Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood.” City of Chicago :: Mayor Emanuel And Whole Foods Market Open New Store In Chicago's Englewood Neighborhood, 2016, www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/mayor/press_room/press_releases/2016/september/Whole-Food-Market-Englewood.html.

Morrison, Erica. “Alberta Commons: Portland's Attempt To Do Redevelopment Right In A Gentrifying Neighborhood.” Oregon Public Broadcasting, OPB, 19 June 2019, www.opb.org/news/article/portland-oregon-alberta-commons-development-gentrification/.

Njus, Elliot. “Natural Grocers to Open on Site Trader Joe's Nixed amid Gentrification Controversy.” Oregonlive, 18 Apr. 2018, www.oregonlive.com/business/2018/04/natural_grocers_to_open_on_sit.html.

Ruppenthal, Alex. “New Law Requires Illinois to Track Food Deserts.” WTTW News, 18 Sept. 2017, news.wttw.com/2017/09/18/new-law-requires-illinois-track-food-deserts.

Turkewitz, Julie. “Who Wants to Run That Mom-and-Pop Market? Almost No One.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 26 July 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/us/colorado-markets.html.

“Verify: Living in a Food Desert.” YouTube, WFAA, 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPG3jG7UlHU.

“What Is a Food Desert?” YouTube, 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAu8Noo8CxA.

This map shows the location of Englewood within the city of Chicago

This Natural Grocers, which was found to be a better fit for the community, stands in place of the proposed Trader Joe's in Portland, Oregon.