Illinois considering grocery grant program to fight off food deserts

Illinois lawmakers are trying to wash out food deserts in the state behind legislation that would create a grant program that would deliver funding to community grocers.

The aim of state senate bill 850 is to eliminate food deserts which can be spotted in rural areas and some urban neighborhoods. The measure would allow the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to create a Grocery Initiative which would study food deserts and provide money for new and existing grocery stores in those areas. Independently owned for-profits, co-ops, nonprofit organizations, and stores owned by governmental units would qualify under the program.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed budget for the upcoming year sets aside $20 million for the grocery initiative.

Food deserts are described in the bill as low-income communities that are at least a half-mile from a grocery store in urban areas and at least 10 miles from a market in rural areas. According to a 2021 Illinois Department of Public Health report, about 1-in-4 Illinois residents (about 3.3 million people) live in a food desert. Furthermore, a weekly survey from the U.S. Census Bureau that began tracking food insecurity since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic reveals that 9.4% of those in Illinois said they did not have enough to eat “sometimes” or “often” over a seven-day period.

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The measure also contains a dollar-store deterrent, where those who are eligible for grant money must carry a substantial variety of perishable foods.

This is not Illinois’ first crack at trying to provide funding for needed grocery stores. Last year Gov. Pritzker signed a bill that allowed the creation of a Healthy Food Development Program that also would help grocers through funding.

The Grocery Initiative program also would put other restrictions into action like annual revenue and store size.

Rep. Mary Beth Canty (D-Arlington Heights) is one of the bill’s sponsors and has even linked it to lightening the level of violence and crime. Canty said desperate people, who might have food insecurities, do desperate things.