Imagine having to travel 20 miles or farther to buy your kids fresh and healthy groceries or even a simple gallon of milk that is not about to expire. Remember: not all farmers, growers, and ranchers have a herd of dairy cows, nor are they set up as retail shops where customers can just drop in.
Many assume that “food deserts” are synonymous with poor, urban areas, but they can exist almost anywhere, even in sunshiny states and America’s heartland. Even where residents have unmet consumer demand for quality groceries.
There are varying causes for food deserts and food imbalance in rural areas. Learn the basics here and check out our “food desert expert” solutions, some of which we detail in our website brochures. Our TEDx talk, which has almost 50K views, brings the information to life in a digestible way.
How did “food desert” conditions capture and keep national attention? In 2006, our firm, Mari Gallagher Research & Consulting Group (MG), released a breakthrough report that popularized the term and motivated Congress to enter food desert language into the Farm Bill. Millions of dollars have been invested in communities across America because of our work. All areas need heathy food as part of the human condition. If you are living in a food desert, something has gone wrong in your local marketplace that needs to be addressed. This is why, in addition to custom food desert assessments, we pioneered place-relevant grocer feasibility studies, grocery store development consulting and strategies that go far beyond the norm.
Did you know that many grocery projects fail because of an inadequate and often incorrect market assessment? Many other firms simply extract “big data,” which is not always accurate or relevant for rural and other disinvested communities.
By contrast, we develop our own data and adjust for errors in data from other sources. We also provide related economic development solutions and apply our social determinants of health expertise. In rural Wapello County, Iowa, for example, we found that the proximity to quality vs. fringe food options correlated with lower grades and shorter height of K through 12 school children and greater incidents of diabetes in adults, holding other factors including household income constant. Mainstream and fringe food categories and how agglomeration patterns impact grocer feasibility is a body of work that we innovated.
One analysis of ours focuses on a grocery store that closed because of a tragic fire in a town called Malvern in rural Mills County, Iowa, a close-knit community anchored by community spirt and surrounded by rolling hills and fields. Tom Mulholland of Mulholland’s Grocery is the store’s 4th generation owner. His great grandfather opened in the store in 1875.
Tom began working at his family’s grocery store over 50 years ago, while he was still in grammar school. As the years went by and Tom advanced, he found his footing by specializing in premium quality German brats, Swedish potato sausages, smoked bacon, and gourmet prepared dishes – made right in the store. Mulholland’s was widely known for attracting regular customers from as far away as a three-hour drive. In fact, as a salute to his success and its impact on the local economy, Tom received an award from the neighboring community’s Chamber of Commerce. Local Malvern residents feel like the store itself is a close family friend, so they were devastated when it burned beyond repair and jubilant when it finally re-opened after several years of myriad challenges. Every rural town needs its own unique assortment of crown jewels to boost economic viability and quality of life. Are you missing a quality grocery store and a strong local food system that encourages and incorporates farmers, ranchers, and other local entrepreneurs? Are you in need of other retail and industrial business or a more vibrant main street? Contact us today if you need help.
Mulholland’s Grocery was Malvern’s crown jewel, and this is why the store’s troubles stayed front and center in Malvern and in other parts of Iowa, too. Just recently, Iowa PBS developed this 6-minute video to summarize the store’s early history, the fire, efforts to rebuild, and the store’s reopening.
We had the pleasure of collaborating with Tom at a conference held in Alabama focused on rural grocery initiatives. See the poster that includes some of our firm’s analysis and watch the documentary. They Came from All Over here. This engaging 14-minute short by award-winning Director Rayka Zehtabchi was sponsored by Meta a few years ago. It includes footage of the fire and how the community held fundraisers and rallied to rebuild.
But proceeds from Tom’s insurance were not enough to cover a rebuild. And times are tough for small grocers. After 50-plus years in the industry and having just suffered other personal losses, Tom felt it might be time and “just darn easier” to move on.
Yet he didn’t.
As Tom explains it, he upped his good grocer commitment with three-quarters of a million dollars in new debt to get the store open because the “community needs it” and he “loves the community so much.” As Tom adds during the PBS interview ”People don’t want to move to a town that doesn’t have a grocery store, and small businesses feed off of each other, and it’s important to be here.”
Today, as the short PBS clip shows, the new store is smaller, although more laid out more efficiently. The community couldn’t be happier.
“Malvern is complete again. We have our own grocery store, and it makes a town a town,” stated one resident.
Grocer retention is also an important focus that rural county officials should not lose sight of. We have methods to predict which stores are in danger of closing, and we conduct confidential interviews with grocery store owners to assess their needs. Don’t wait for your local grocery to suddenly close before you finally take notice. Once a store closes, it’s hard to reopen another in its place. The closure sends a market signal – usually incorrect – that quality food is not viable. Don’t wait to show your local good grocers that they matter. Be proactive in retention. We find that this is an issue in almost every county and state that we have worked in.
In Florida, where many areas are rural, we found that greater distance to quality food has a direct link to lower life expectancy, and we helped the state prioritize the top 100 urban and top 100 rural areas where solutions would result in the greatest positive impact.
Later Florida work also included a hunger model that we created to ensure that all households of all income levels acquire missed meals. Our unique, highly reliable, hyper local toolbox nets out any type of food and groceries that all households of all income levels already receive through government programs, pantries, food banks, and even help from friends and family. Other models do not determine an exact number of missed meals, but ours does. Other models use stereotypes of who in the community they deem are poor and need help.
The food desert expertise that our firm pioneered is about the lack of geographic access. Households that miss nutritious meals because they cannot afford them relates to the lack of sufficient financial access to grocery stores, even if the store is close by. Often, conditions concerning the lack of geographic and financial access to healthy food overlap. If you are a county economic development official or Chamber of Commerce leader, take note, because the need for charitable food – and all areas have some level of need – intersects with market dynamics, and we have strategies that address both needs while boosting sales at the existing or new good grocery store.
Our model is called the Meal Deficit Metric. We have highly reliable scores for all hyper-local areas across the entire continental US. This means that it won’t take months to identify the exact number and hyper local pinpoints of missed meals across your state, county, or town. We are ready now to hit the ground running.
Florida’s very own Robin Safley was the first to commission our Meal Deficit Model. She continues to motivate and inspire us with her steadfast efforts to solve hunger and promote prosperity in her state.
To provide a sense of how hyper-local our model is, consider that we partitioned the state of Florida into over 13,600 small geographies and developed statistically significant scores of net missing meals for each one. This makes solving food insecurity transparent, trackable, and possible. Results have been updated in Florida four separate times, including during the pandemic, when we factored in an employment disruption analysis.
All of us hear reports in the news or from food banks about food insecure families, but we don’t hear how many meals each week are missed or pinpointedly where meals are missed. This is a critical piece of information for those seeking to solve the problem.
When people regularly miss meals because they cannot afford them, it can negatively impact quality and length of life. But if this outcome does not spark an inner moral imperative, then think of it in business terms: if dollars are flowing to closing the meal gap, doesn’t everybody want to know the exact number of missing meals and be assured they are directed to the exact locations where they are missed, and not just to areas perceived as poor? Many households miss meals but do not quality for SNAP or other programs. Families of all income levels can experience hardship from time to time, such as the death of the loved one that provided financially for the household, the loss of a job, an illness, or even a divorce. Food is expensive, especially these days, and so are other living expenses. Many middle- and upper-income families are also feeling pinched. Keep in mind, too, that most grocery stores generate some level of purchases through SNAP, and grocery margins are thin. SNAP rollbacks also affect grocer profits.
Recently, we conducted training for rural counties in South Carolina on how to use hyper-localized data including our scores of net missing meals. View some of the South Carolina county results, maps for a sample county (Greenwood), and PowerPoint here.
We have heard concerns from many clients and partners that the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will be scaled back. SNAP is often called America’s first line of defense against hunger. As consultants, we are experts in assessing the quality and types of offerings of SNAP-authorized retailers and program trends. We can adjust our model to reflect SNAP rollbacks, new spikes in unemployment, and even a measure of “rural decline” to help you apportion food bank funding across any geography, including your state.
In rural Mississippi, where we conducted a grocery feasibility study, we found that many “food stores” were sorely lacking. In one dollar store, for example, we found broken freezers and coolers filled with spoiled product. While the full study is proprietary, you can view some of the public materials here.
We understand the complexities of local food markets, how to improve them, and why it matters. And we find that our work in rural communities is especially fulfilling. “Local leaders in these communities are very dedicated and have a can-do attitude. They learn from us, but we also learn quite a lot from them. That we can each add value to the other is the perfect partnership,” Gallagher said.
A lot has changed since our firm first made “food desert” a household word nationally. Very recently, some funding sources have dried up, slowed down, or stalled. Communities that had budding plans are now feeling a heavy dose of uncertainty. But don’t just sit on your hands waiting for conditions to improve.
This challenge might offer a new and better opportunity to be more entrepreneurial and creative, if not by initial first choice, then at least by necessity. And once you try this new imperative on, you just might like it—a lot. Mari Gallagher herself, as a former market maverick, co-developed a $75 million grocery store and community improvement initiative that spoke to the art of the deal while still prioritizing a solution the community could be proud of. The project required assembling many different adjacent land parcels. Yet these owners immediately jacked up their prices, even though they had been trying for years to sell their empty buildings for much less. But reasonable and persuasive leaders can attract and keep market actors at the table while honoring the spirit of community and ensuring that all parties are treated fairly and walk away happy. Let us know if you need help!
“Rural food desert” does sound bleak. For example, many rural community food markets — even those with a strong consumer base — have deteriorated and mostly offer substandard “food” outlets such as dollar and convenience stores. This can drag the overall business climate down and repel new positive, desired market offerings, even when residents demonstrate demand and the ability to afford them. Don’t let these market conditions settle into a “new normal.” Think instead of “rural renaissance” and “rural areas of opportunity.” With the right understanding and strategy, many of these community endeavors can succeed, including quality grocery initiatives.
The “why bother to try to reverse rural decline” is clear on so many levels. Consider quality and length of life for yourself, your family, and your neighbors. Consider that someday you might not even have adequate hospital access. What then? Our firm was featured in a documentary called Bridging the Health Divide, which focused on rural America and explores these very issues. It’s a must-see for anyone who cares about access to healthy food, our MG classifications of mainstream and fringe food stores, hospital access, and the rural renaissance movement.
True local leaders, like those spearheading rural renaissance initiatives, seek to bring in quality stores, amenities, and general services that keep and attract residents and spur economic development, health, and wellness. When grants run dry, they use our data and strategies to empower and help themselves and their neighbors think more strategically about harnessing market forces. They rekindle a dormant passion that believes in a cause worth fighting for and winning. After all, these communities—all communities—deserve to rise to their highest potential.
Your next step is easy. Start by giving us a call today.
Your rural community is important, and we hope to hear from you.
