South Los Angeles Residents are Paying for Bad Food Policy with their Health

South Los Angeles home to roughly 800,000 people, and spans approximately 60 square miles. South L.A. is truly a federation of smaller communities, yet each one is overrun with liquor stores and other small “corner stores”, at times referred to as convenience stores. Mainstream grocery stores are rare, and when they are present, the quality of the food is poor and the prices high.

Few of neighborhood stores sell fresh food at all; if they do have fresh items, the selection is limited and the items are overpriced and inferior.

In South Los Angeles, healthy food is hard to find, substandard and expensive.
Commercial corridors throughout South L.A are crowded with fast food. In other words, unhealthy food choices dominate the landscape – they are cheap and easily
available.

Did you know:
-In South LA, there are just four supermarkets (including major chain and discount) in all five zip codes. West L.A. had more major chain markets than East L.A., South L.A. and the Northeast San Fernando Valley combined.

-Studies have found that convenience stores in low-income and working class neighborhoods, on average offered one sixth the selection of vegetables, one third the selections of fruits and one ninth the selection of meat as a full service grocery store.

-44% of African Americans have cardiovascular disease while nine percent have diabetes.32% of Latino residents in Los Angeles County have cardiovascular disease and eight percent have diabete