I attended the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Grocery Retail Site Visit in Philadelphia on September 7th-8th 2006. In attendance as well was LA State Senator Anne Duplessis (whose district includes the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East) as well as a couple of LA State Senate and House staffers. Other represented states were Michigan and New Mexico, both of which have cases of populations under served by grocery access in both rural and urban areas.

We visited several stores in the Philly area, and encountered a few different operators with different approaches to their market or community, depending on the perspective of course. We also heard several presentations from a variety of representatives of every type of organization involved in food access in underserved areas, including business investment firms, local and state politicians and staffers, local operators and proprietors and neighborhood based community groups and action councils.

I was awestruck and inspired by the level of cooperation and coordination by public, private and civic groups for the development and expansion of grocery supermarkets in under served areas in the city of Philadelphia.

The Sponsors

• The Reinvestment Fund (TRF) is the investment group that is coordinating the granting process with private businesses in Philadelphia that helps build new and expand existing grocery. This specific program is called the Fresh Food Financing Initiative. http://www.trfund.com
• Food Marketing Institute (FMI) is a group that lobbies for the benefit of their associated food retailers. http://www.fmi.org
• Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition (GPUAC) works to develop opportunities for urban residents and small businesses. http://www.gpuac.org
• ShopRite is a regional chain of franchised supermarket operators, we met with Jeff Brown on Island Ave in southwest Philly (Eastwick) http://www.shoprite.com
• The Food Trust promotes food access and food health related development of all sorts. http://www.thefoodtrust.org

Site Visits

• 1st Oriental Supermarket near the historic Italian market area

• a ShopRite on Island Ave in the south part of town

• a Fresh Grocer on 40th and Walnut next to the University of Pennsylvania

• future site of a new Fresh Grocer on North Broad next to Temple University in Progress Plaza

Presentations

• Jeff Brown of the Eastwick ShopRite
  • fourth generation grocer who believes in the importance of community involvement and customer service in the success of urban grocery; has the proven results of record sales at a formerly defunct grocery location to prove it
  • also talked about the aggressive steps he had to take to get ShopRite to add products that he needed to serve his community such as including halal foods for the significant Muslim population in Eastwick
  • also talked about the efforts he had to take to train inner city workers who had never had a job before and knew little about work ethics and customer service and the success he has had in those training efforts
• Maggie Powell of the Eastwick PAC
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastwick,_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania
  • talked about how Jeff interacts with the neighborhood and how his actions have led to the success and acceptance of his ShopRite by the local residents
• Elizabeth Wise from FMI
  • discussed the work and efforts of the FMI on behalf of their members
• Jeremy Nowak, president of The Reinvestment Fund (TRF)
  • “public purpose combined with market discipline”, or “enacting social agendas within the market dynamics”
  • stressed the fusion of business success and social good that is embodied in the mission of TRF
  • the concept of a smart subsidy, or using public money to only finance things that the market won’t or can’t finance as opposed to simply throwing grant money at social projects for the sake of throwing grant money at social projects
  • stressed the TRF position that government cannot create entrepreneurs, it can only enable them
• Judy Wicks of The White Dog Cafe
  • local production, organic production, sustainability
  • talked about her efforts to encourage other restaurants to use local, organic, and sustainable products
• Duane Perry of The Food Trust
  • discussed the mission of The Food Trust “to ensure that everyone has access to affordable, nutritious food” and their role in these developments
• PA Representative Dwight Evans of the Pennsylvania Legislature
  • current chair of appropriations committee, he has created a line-item in the annual budget that is funneled to the Dept of Community and Economic Development where it is invested and directed in part by TRF for the development of a stable grocery supermarket in every neighborhood in the city
  • he is really the visionary here, and his actions have proven him to be a noble and honest agent in the development of urban grocery business and food access in the Philadelphia area
• Scott Dunkelberger of the PA Dept of Community and Economic Development
  • discussed his office’s role in turning a line-item in the PA budget into money that can be granted to aid grocers
• Sharmain Matlock-Turner of the Greater Philadelphia Urban Affairs Coalition
  • talked about wealth building and asset development in African-American communities
• Anita Chappelle of Progress Investment Association
  • outlined the learning process by which they are renovating Progress Plaza and breaking ground on a new Fresh Grocer at the same location
• Kami Pothukuchi from the Urban Planning faculty of Wayne State University
  • discussed the categorization and development of different types of grocery access from Supermarkets down to Mobile Markets in underserved urban and rural settings
• Dick Voith of Econsult
  • presented statistical data from his recent study that shows that the existence of supermarkets works to raise property values in a given neighborhood
    • close proximity might increase traffic and ambient annoyances, but property values still rise from 1.5 to 3 percent
    • being within 1 to 1.5 miles can cause a rise of as much as 8 percent