Access to Fresh Produce: A Corner Store Owner Perspective

There is an understood difficulty for the average American to meet the daily nutritional recommendations; but to numerous of neighborhoods across the United States, access to healthy food items is scarce (Kirkpatrick, 2012; Weill, Cooper, Hartline-Grafton, & Burke, 2011). In low-income environments, it is common to find corner stores. Corner stores do not often carry as many items as compared to a grocery store, especially healthy items. Because of a biology professor\u27s experience with soil, crops, and an abundance of produce, the department and local health department staff started a delivery system to corner store sites which offers attractive, fresh produce to neighborhoods in North Minneapolis. The purpose of this study was to explore the value of a business relationship with a local fresh produce distribution business, BrightSide Produce Distribution, from a corner store owner perspective. Qualitative interviews were conducted with eight corner store owners in Northern neighborhoods of Minneapolis. The interviews explored the owners\u27 experiences; and 10 themes were developed. The findings of this study suggest that the realities in low-income environments make offering fresh produce quite difficult. The findings also indicate a fresh produce distribution system is highly appreciated, with cost being the number one contender. While this study is exploratory in nature, it holds implications for social work practice, policy, and future research