It’s something many of us take for granted. You need something from the grocery store, you hop in your car and go get it.
But for many San Diegans, that’s not an option. They live in areas known as “food deserts.” The Logan Heights neighborhood used to be one of those deserts, but not anymore.
At Ideal Market on the corner of National Avenue and 31st Street, alongside all the candy and processed food, there’s now something else: fresh fruits and vegetables.
“We try to identify underserved communities where residents may have limited access to supermarkets, and we try to find stores that would be a good fit to carry fresh fruits and vegetables," said Iana Castro, who runs a nonprofit called Brightside Produce with a mission of tackling food insecurity.
Castro is also a professor of marketing at San Diego State University. She co-founded Brightside at SDSU in 2017. Back then they had five stores. Now, they’re up to 29.
A team of staffers and student interns makes the rounds to all the stores every week. It starts with removing produce that’s been on the shelf for awhile.
That produce is either donated to various organizations in the community, or it's composted.
Then fresh produce is placed on the shelves by volunteers like Danielle Rogacion, a graduate student at SDSU and intern at Brightside Produce.
“Having a connection with the corner stores and liquor stores, having access to all of those produce at a cheaper price will help families in the community just have food on the table," Rogacion said.
Kate Mahoney is a community health program specialist with the County.
“Over 50% of deaths in the County of San Diego are due to chronic diseases," she said. That's one of the reasons why the county financially supports Brightside Produce. Mahoney said it's a good investment in communities that really need it.
“Our communities of color are disproportionately affected by lack of access to healthy food," Mahoney said.
There’s another positive to what Brightside does. Iana Castro said they try to buy as much food as possible from local farmers.
“Currently we have four or five farm partners and we don’t always get food consistently from them, but when we do, we do try to incorporate it and try to mark it locally grown," said Castro.
She said Brightside's goal is to get to the point where no one in the county will be more than a 10-minute walk from a store that sells fresh produce. They’re getting there — one corner store at a time.
