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In the seaside resort of Atlantic City, New Jersey, where $5 billion worth of in-person and online gambling gets done each year, there still is not a supermarket.
A state agency and two hospital systems are sending mobile grocery stores into poor areas of the city to bring residents access to fresh meat and produce, at below-market rates.
Virtua Health’s “Eat Well” program aims to bring high-quality food and fresh produce to economically deprived areas that lack meaningful access to healthy food.
Delorese Butley-Whaley, 62, was delighted to board the bus to buy a half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread for a total of $3. She listed other items that she bought earlier. That saves her 30- to 45-minute walks to a local corner food store or a $10 cab ride in each direction to a full-fledged supermarket on the mainland. That quickly eats into her food budget.
April Schetler, who runs the program for Virtua Health, said it is designed to fill part of the void in communities without a real supermarket like Atlantic City and Camden.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way in Atlantic City, where in Nov. 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy and top elected officials held a much-ballyhooed groundbreaking ceremony for a new ShopRite supermarket that was to be built on vacant land not far from the casinos.
The state was willing to commit $19 million in public funds to see the project across the finish line. But construction never started and the project fell apart.
“People come here to have fun, they go to the casinos,” said JoAnn Melton, 42, who also shops at a corner store she says is beset by loiterers and drunks from a nearby liquor store. “But like, what about us who actually live here and this whole community, you know, I think they really need to do something better for us because we all are struggling back here.”
The grocery bus “is awesome,” she said. She bought dishwasher detergent, bleach, coffee, lemons, bananas and bread, all for $16. “We really need this,” she said. “This is good for us.”
This article was provided by The Associated Press.