Healthier Corner Stores Coming to Denver

Share On Social!

Many communities around Denver, CO don’t have access to fresh, healthy, or affordable foods. Fast food is cheap but nutritionally poor, and is taking a toll on residents’ health. Fortunately, City and County health officials want to see these neighborhoods filled with more fresh food options, so they are infiltrating local corner stores, hoping to replace chips and sodas with healthier fare.

Funded by a $327,000 grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, the Healthy Corner Store Initiative began in August 2014 with the city and county of Denver’s Department of Environmental Health taking the lead.

Details of the corner-store plan, along with other potential improvements, will be unveiled on Oct. 16 at a community meeting in northeast Denver, along with the results of a comprehensive food assessment of seven neighborhoods: Five Points, Whittier, Cole, Clayton, North City Park, Globeville and Elyria-Swansea.

A team of trained residents collected information — including 617 neighborhood surveys conducted in English and Spanish, 20 corner store audits and four focus groups — so that research would reflect the true needs of the communities.

According to survey results reported in the Denver Post, African-Americans and Hispanic community members are at least two times less likely to eat five or more fresh fruits and vegetables daily compared with white residents.

The results also found that Hispanic residents reported eating one to two fast-food meals a week more than other racial or ethnic groups.

City and county officials hope to see corner stores converted into food hubs where residents can buy fresh produce like lettuce, tomatoes, and fruits. Stores accepted into the program are eligible for grants that would provide coolers for perishable items and other infrastructure support.

Read more about the new corner store program here.