The Food Desert: at Family Fair Food Center with A Nice Lady*

"I don't have any problem finding healthy food in Detroit."

The Food Desert: Family Fair Food Center

Location
Family Fair Food Cent, 700 Chene St, Detroit, MI 48207

[Streetview]

Prices
Apples: $1.79/pound | Bananas: $.59/pound | Oranges: $.50 each


Community Profile for Zip Code 48207

Population	Educational Attainment for persons older than 25-years: Percent High School Graduate or Higher	Median Household Income	Unemployment Rate for persons age 16 years and older.	People Below Poverty Level
20252	79.4% [15 percent lower than national rate of 93.0%]	$23,070 [56 percent lower than national Median Household Income of $52,762]	14.4% [50 percent higher than the national rate of 9.6%]	41.1% [174 percent higher than the national rate of 15.0%]

Source: American Fact Finder courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau: http://1.usa.gov/1aPDUbF

Interview: *A Nice Lady
Excerpts

[0:19]
What does healthy food mean to you?
"When I eat less fried foods and more steamed vegetables, I find that my body works better [...] the 'elimination' process is a lot better."
I like your choice of words...

[0:53]
Do you ever have a problem finding healthy food in the city of Detroit?
No. Not in the least.


The Complete Interview



Noah's Thoughts
I used to live about 1.5 miles from Family Fair Food Center. Family Fair Food Center is by any reasonable definition: a grocery store in the hood. How do you know a grocery store is in the hood? If the grocery store has metal barricades around its entrance to stop people from stealing shopping carts, that grocery store is in the hood.

Even still, this grocery store in the hood has a more than adequate selection of staple healthy produce at reasonable prices. My personal experience is that this is typical of most grocery stores in even Detroit's most economically-depressed neighborhoods. 

In addition to a more than adequate selection of affordable produce, the store also had a super-nice lady
who was kind enough to talk to me. *Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get her name. She was in a rush to get home to her family and I was also in a rush to photograph the next Detroit grocery store's barren produce shelves. 

Sarcasm. 

[View more of the Food Desert series]

 

- Noah -

Noah Stephens  founded The People of Detroit Photodocumentary in April 2010 as a counterpoint to media fixated on despair and disrepair in the storied birthplace of American auto manufacturing. Since, TPOD has received national and international attention. Portraits from the project have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and other national publications.