Baltimore Hires Its First Food Czar

In explaining the unhealthy eating habits that have fostered widespread obesity and other health problems in the inner city, Baltimore faces a chicken-and-egg (or, perhaps more accurately, Chicken McNugget-and-Egg McMuffin) issue: Do people not choose healthy foods because they are unavailable, or are healthy foods unavailable because people choose unhealthy ones? It's probably some of both. Supermarkets followed affluent residents to the suburbs, and the corner markets and convenience stores that remain rarely stock fresh fruits and vegetables. But the problem isn't just one of supply; years of bad eating habits will take more than an airlift of locally grown carrots to overcome.

That's why the appointment of city's first "food czar," Holly Freishtat, is so important. The newly created position, one of the first of its kind in a major U.S. city, is funded by grants from nonprofits and is charged with implementing recommendations of the Baltimore City Food Policy Task Force. Among the ideas for getting more fresh produce in city residents' hands is the expansion of a "virtual supermarket" program that allows people to order groceries online at a local library, new zoning to allow more urban gardens, expanded access to farmers markets and a push for healthier food in corner stores and on street vendors' carts.

The twofold difficulty city officials face is exemplified by the virtual supermarket program. The Health Department, which runs the program at pilot sites in East and West Baltimore, has been fairly successful so far in getting people to try the service, and the anecdotal response is that it makes grocery shopping much more convenient for people who don't own cars and would otherwise have to walk long distances or take multiple buses to get to a grocery store. But the service doesn't restrict participants to healthy choices alone, and it remains to be seen whether simply having access to fresh produce will be enough to overcome the pull of junk food. The East Baltimore site at the Orleans Street library is, after all, across the street from a Burger King.

To read the rest of the story, please go to: The Baltimore Sun.