Food deserts, gentrification and inequity in Charlotte

In some gentrifying neighborhoods across Charlotte, longtime residents — forced to make do with a lack of healthy food options nearby — suddenly can no longer afford their home, just as grocery stores and other businesses begin to show interest.

Food plays a significant role in gentrification and can spark development. When new restaurants and markets that cater to wealthier customers appear in a neighborhood, it often correlates with increasing home prices and displacement of established residents.

In some Charlotte neighborhoods with rapidly rising property value, there’s a correlating loss of food businesses that accept EBT, commonly called food stamps — which shows how gentrification not only makes housing unaffordable but basic necessities like food inaccessible, too. But experts say the problem is more nuanced than that.

In Charlotte, over the past decade, there’s been an increase in the number of grocery stores and other fresh food retailers accepting EBT. Yet in many neighborhoods, those stores that take food stamps sell a minimal amount of items like fresh fruits and vegetables, and other healthy staples.

Around 15% of Mecklenburg residents live in a food desert — higher than the national average. Researchers define a food desert as a low-income neighborhood without access to a full-service grocery store or supermarket.

The causes and solutions of food insecurity are intertwined — race, poverty, transportation and health all align. In some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, residents — mostly people of color — lack access to transportation and food options nearby don’t regularly carry fresh produce.

County leaders know that many residents are hungry and are trying to resolve the area’s worsening food crisis. Earlier this year, county commissioners discussed food deserts during their budget retreat and solutions like economic development grants that would financially support stores located in food deserts, land banking that would provide incentive for stores to move to targeted areas, and mobile grocery stores that would travel food deserts.

But none of the options were deemed viable.

Food disparities by ZIP code

For decades, government’s main program for addressing child hunger and food insecurity has been food stamps.

The last available data, from 2018, show there are 116,295 SNAP benefits recipients in Mecklenburg County. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides federal funds for participants to buy food using an EBT card, similar to a debit card in stores.

Some areas of Charlotte deemed the most food insecure are losing EBT-accepting stores but citywide, more EBT options exist than 10 years ago, an Observer analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows.

ZIP code 28205, which includes NoDa, Villa Heights and Plaza Midwood, lost the most EBT-accepting businesses over the past decade in Mecklenburg County, according to the USDA data.

It’s home to the Giant Penny, one of the first EBT-accepting stores in the area. Gentrification has forced some of its customers away from the neighborhood, the owner told the Observer recently.

But many customers they keep coming back from their new communities because of the service the grocery store provides — and because they aren’t getting what they need close by.

Nearby 28206 saw a drop, too, and it is one of the country’s fastest-gentrifying ZIP codes, which includes neighborhoods like Druid Hills and Optimist Park, as well as some off East Sugar Creek Road and North Graham Street. It saw the biggest home price increase in the past year, according to data provided by Canopy.

They’re two of five ZIP codes identified by the county health department as food insecure “priority areas.”

In other areas of the city, there’s been a significant jump over the last 10 years of stores that accept EBT, the data show. For example, ZIP Code 28213, which runs along North Tryon Street from Hidden Valley to near the University area, showed the biggest increase, with 18 new EBT-accepting stores.

Whether that’s putting a dent in food insecurity, though, is unclear.

Most of those EBT-accepting businesses are small bodegas and gas stations, where it’s sometimes hard to come by nutritious food. Major grocery chains — which almost always accept EBT — are far less likely to be located in low-income areas.

‘They rely on EBT’

Pritesh Patel has owned India Grocers in Pineville since he moved to Charlotte twelve years ago and added their University area location in 2014.

The store serves the local South Asian population, he said — they sell mostly Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi groceries. They’re one of the new EBT-supporting stores in the ZIP code with the biggest growth in providers. He said it was important to them when they realized many of their older customers used SNAP benefits to buy food.

“They rely on EBT,” he said. “It was easy [to apply].”

Since his store opened in the University area, he’s noticed a changing demographic — people from all kinds of different backgrounds are moving to the community. There’s a lot of competition, he said — taking EBT is a must.

“If we don’t, they’ll go to other stores,” he said.

The area has only seen a slight increase in home prices in the past year, according to data provided by Canopy. But it’s poised for drastic change as it’s near a recently-identified “corridor” of economic development — an area where commercial land owners will reap tax benefits and local leaders say they want to steer growth.

That coordinated effort, if the city’s past is any indication, will likely increase property values over time. A similar strategy is underway in parts of west Charlotte, which is home to the city’s most well known food deserts.

West Charlotte’s desert

Food deserts have been a long time issue for the west Charlotte’s mostly Black neighborhoods, which have been ignored time and time again by traditional grocery stores.

UNCC researchers are working with community partners to discover solutions to the lack of access to healthy food in the community. Byron White, associate provost for Urban Research and Community Engagement, is helping facilitate that effort.

“You can argue as a community becomes gentrified, its prospects for gaining a traditional supermarket increases,” he said. Those stores often accept EBT. “Some communities with more modest economic profiles never seek to qualify. That’s one of the things we’re fighting in our work.”

For many in West Charlotte, their closest supermarket option is the Walmart on Wilkinson Boulevard. Only a small portion of neighborhoods are in walking distance to the store.

Bringing a food co-op to the 5 Points area, which would be operated by customers and workers instead of a corporation, is in the works — but advocates still face obstacles. Land is hard to come by in the area, and what land is available is expensive.

In west Charlotte there are three designated corridors of opportunity by city leaders: One along Beatties Ford, one along Freedom Drive and another along West Boulevard.

The plans call for bringing growth and new businesses to the area — but development risks the possibility of gentrification and displacement.

Nadia Anderson, an associate professor of Architecture and Urban Design at UNCC who has studied food insecurity and housing, said food, housing, health access and park access all overlap.

“What’s happened is lower income neighborhoods, which tend to have high populations of color and higher reliance on EBT, tend not to be places where most mainstream grocery stores are willing to locate,” Anderson said. “Conversely, in neighborhoods that are the opposite, that have higher or rising income, one may have an abundance of access.”

Anderson recently moved from south Charlotte, ZIP code 28207, to east Charlotte, ZIP code 28212 — another one of the health department’s five “priority areas.” Going from a wealthy, mostly white neighborhood to the much more diverse east Charlotte neighborhood, she’s noticed there are a lot more dollar stores, she said, in her new community, instead of three of four Harris Teeters a couple of minutes between each other.

But some of the folks she knows in the area will drive several miles to go to the single Harris Teeter close to east Charlotte on Central instead of shopping at a place closer by, like the Food Lion or the Giant Penny.

“There are clearly some preferences,” Anderson said.

“If we could figure out ways to have more mixed income neighborhoods, where things weren’t all just super wealthy or all incredibly poor, we could potentially can support different types of businesses,” she said. “That would be a start.”

Gavin Off contributed to this report.