--- title: Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones | TIME description: In many poor urban areas, grocers don't carry fresh fruits and vegetables. A merchant on Chicago's South Side hopes to change that canonical: https://time.com/video/U9SB5Xkl/ og:title: Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones og:description: In many poor urban areas, grocers don't carry fresh fruits and vegetables. A merchant on Chicago's South Side hopes to change that og:url: https://time.com/video/U9SB5Xkl/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/U9SB5Xkl/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones twitter:description: In many poor urban areas, grocers don't carry fresh fruits and vegetables. A merchant on Chicago's South Side hopes to change that twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/U9SB5Xkl/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones [Watch (HLS stream): Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/U9SB5Xkl.m3u8) (3:04)  _Published 2009-05-26. In many poor urban areas, grocers don't carry fresh fruits and vegetables. A merchant on Chicago's South Side hopes to change that_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:09 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Bridging an Urban-Rural Divide](/video/iCgbkmEr/) ### Bridging an Urban-Rural Divide [Urban Rebounding: Low Impact Aerobics](/video/0mvawr0S/) ### Urban Rebounding: Low Impact Aerobics [Urban Environment](/video/1XVwnpEN/) ### Urban Environment --- ## Transcript >> Karriem Beyah, first took that property on Chicago south side, he says the neighborhood was a desert, an urban American food desert. That's what experts call a vast, densely populated community with few stores selling fresh fruits and vegetables. >> I found this location because I knew that I wanted to push health. This area is as about as far east as the Hispanic community comes. The other side is as far west as African- Americans go. It's right here, where both communities are living. >> Last summer, Beyah took the savings he built during years working as a food industry executive to buy an old supermarket building that was abandoned nearly two decades ago. The result-- Farmers Best Market. Here, fresh fruits, vegetables and meats account for more than 60 percent of sales. So, in many ways, Farmers Best is an oasis. >> When we're talking about the food desert, we're talking about life and death basically. We're not talking about somebody dying immediately because they live in a food desert. This impact takes time. >> We talked to Mari Gallagher estimates 600, 000 of Chicago's nearly three million residents lived in a food desert. >> It's primarily in a minority neighborhood, the majority as African- American neighborhood. >> We studied every single block in the city of Chicago and so for African- Americans for example on average they traveled twice as far to reach the grocery store over the fast food restaurant and if you're poor or you don't have a car or you're working three jobs, you're taking your kids around, it's hard to get two or three times out of your neighborhood to get those healthy foods. >> The lack of fresh, affordable fruits and vegetables in urban neighborhoods has been linked to higher rates of obesity- related ailments like high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. >> I think people can really understand the necessity of having access to healthy food and they seek communities that don't have it in a very surprise and they wanna do something about it. >> Efforts to convince supermarket chains to return to urban neighborhoods have been [ unk ] provide those companies risk aversion and shrinking profit margins. Beyah is aware of the challenges. >> It's about numbers. It's a big corporation. The numbers aren't there, why it'd be here? With me, yeah. If I don't make a certain number to pay my bills, I won't make it either. But I have a smaller number that I need to make and it's more passion to me. It's easier for them to close down, move in another direction and get the number that they want. I look at the opposite-- that community [ unk ] then that's the reason to be there. Why should I not do everything I can to make it better? I have not made a profit in the store yet. I've not made a profit. I'm still on above water. I'm paying my bills with this economy. It's been very tough. It's been very tough. I'm making it. I will make it but it's not coming easy. >> Steven Gray reporting from Chicago for TIME. com. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Urban Deserts: Fresh-Food-Free Zones","description":"In many poor urban areas, grocers don't carry fresh fruits and vegetables. A merchant on Chicago's South Side hopes to change that","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/U9SB5Xkl/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-05-26T04:09:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/U9SB5Xkl.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/U9SB5Xkl/","duration":"PT3M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/U9SB5Xkl/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```