Could mobile food pantries address Lexington’s food deserts? How you can weigh in
The city of Lexington wants to hear from residents about how to increase access to food in areas of Kentucky’s second-largest city where grocery stores and food options are scarce.
One of the recommendations from Mayor Linda Gorton’s 2020 Commission on Racial Justice and Equality was to improve access to fresh, healthy foods across the city.
Several areas of Lexington, including the city’s East Side, do not have full-service grocery stores.
To get more input, the city has posted an online survey at https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/9ee9de66628d4df493e72e9e8e97351d
The city will also host five focus group discussions in coming weeks. All participants must wear a face mask to the in-person meetings.
- Centro de San Juan Diego, 1389 Alexandria Drive, at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 19
- Lexington Legends Ballpark, 207 Legends Lane, at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 25
- Black & Williams Neighborhood Center, 498 Georgetown Street, at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 15
- Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, 300 East Third Street, at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 22
- Virtual Zoom Meeting at Noon on March 8. Zoom link will be made available at a later date.
“As a nurse, I know just how important a healthy diet is,” Gorton said. “Too many of our residents face food access barriers, and my team and I are trying to make food -- particularly healthy food -- more accessible and affordable for our most vulnerable residents.”
One model the city is exploring is using mobile food pantries to bring food into neighborhoods currently undeserved by grocery stores. There are similar programs in Louisville and in Milwaukee, Wisc.
Those pop-up pantries often partner with local churches and nonprofits in those neighborhoods. The Louisville area Dare to Care mobile pantry program also uses local volunteers to staff the pantries. That program started in 2007 and operates approximately 40 mobile pantries in the greater Louisville and Southern Indiana area.
Tiffany Brown, the city’s Implementation and Equity Officer, is overseeing the project. Brown said they are in the beginning stages of exploring different models to address food scarcity.
“Right now we’re gathering information from citizens, exploring partnerships and working with other cities that have developed models similar to what we are trying to accomplish in addressing food insecurity,” Brown said. Brown has been hired to oversee the more than 54 recommendations in the commission’s report.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 12:56 PM.
