NO MORE FOOD DESERTS in the INNER BELTWAY!

 What is being heard at The Front Porch Ministries! No, it is not gossip. It is TRUTH!

When I moved to Mount Rainier, there were quality food stores (Giant Foods, Safeway, and A&P) within walking distance of several communities. All those stores are gone today, and new stores with reasonable prices and relatively good quality moved in but are also now gone. If residents have cars or money for transportation, they can get to other stores with good quality food and pay less. But, if they do not have these resources, they are doomed to less-than-quality food at higher prices.

The stores that replaced those "good" quality food stores that served the entire neighborhood were often replaced with food stores of inferior quality.

My community has lost all of its major food stores! Why? Because the good quality stores have moved out to move affluent neighborhoods while no one was watching. YEP, COVID is to blame for that, too, right? NOT!

Also, lawmakers and those elected to serve and protect all are cutting deals and ensuring that THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS remain intact and that they receive the BEST of everything.

Neighbors, residents, families, and friends, WE MUST UNITE and DEMAND that our community no longer be declared a "food desert and that QUALITY FOOD STORES be brought back to our walking communities.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE for our area to once again be deprived of the growth and development that is occurring in our county -- "one of the richest Black counties in America!'

Our populations are counted when grants and funding requests are submitted to county, state, and federal government for funding, yet we are NOT GETTING OUR FAIR SHARE WITHIN THE BELTWAY!

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Join me in taking on this issue. Let's fight for what is rightfully OURS -- quality food within walking distance of our homes. Municipalities WANT to be at the table when these big decisions are being made!