Missouri House Bill 486 could give tax credits for building full-service grocery stores in food deserts.
Food deserts are areas with high concentrations of low income residents and are one mile in urban areas and ten miles in rural areas from full-service grocery stores. The bill could increase access to healthy food options and grocery stores for people in these communities. Representative Randy Dunn of Kansas City said more than twenty percent of Missouri’s counties qualify as food deserts and many residents worry about where they will get their next meal.
Dunn said he is proposing this legislation to ensure “...healthy options of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and fresh meat are available in those communities where that currently does not exist.”
The Greater Kansas City Food Policy Coalition Director Beth Low-Smith said low-income people often have to plan hours in advance to find dependable transportation or meet physical demands to get to the nearest grocery store. “Living as a low-income person is difficult anywhere, but when you add living in a food desert it becomes very challenging to maintain a healthy diet,” said Low-Smith.
Opposition to the bill could come from those who don’t favor tax credits or think there are better alternatives for certain communities than developing full-service grocery stores. Low-Smith said that grocers face unique challenges when they open and keep stores in food deserts, but that access to food for low-income, disabled, and working people is crucial and adds to a community that thrives.
The bill will next head to one of the House rules committees.