A struggle to eat in Toronto’s food deserts

A new policy paper from the Martin Prosperity Institute analyzes the growing number of “food deserts” — areas where residents do not have easy access to good quality, affordable food. It estimates that only 51 per cent of Toronto’s population lives within 1 kilometre of a grocery store.

Food deserts are most pronounced in the inner suburbs and the city’s 13 priority neighbourhoods, such as Lawrence Heights, Flemingdon Park and Steeles-L’Amoureaux.

The inner suburbs, once home to middle-class families with cars, are now filled with low-income families, often new immigrants, dependent on transit or walking. Picking up food is daunting, especially for seniors and disabled residents.

For Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare, the solutions lie in better planning: “Nothing in the Planning Act demands a developer to build a grocery store,” she points out, though there are requirements for things like schools.

“As a right of living in a great city like ours, people should be able to walk two blocks from their home and get a full range of foods — fresh meat, vegetables, bakeries — that are not outrageously priced,” said Field.

"I would think that the planners need to work with the private sector to make that happen.”

Source: http://www.thestar.com/yourcitymycity/article/823514--a-struggle-to-eat-in-toronto-s-food-
deserts