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“Absence of access”: How D.C.’s most marginalized communities are fighting back against food apartheid

February 2, 2025


Design by Ayla Feng

Nearly one-fifth of households in D.C. have skipped meals because they lack access to adequate food. Another fifth has experienced uncertainty around accessing needed nutrition, according to the Capital Area Food Bank’s 2024 Hunger Report.

Food insecurity is a problem throughout D.C., where, depending on which ward a person lives in,  a grocery store might be miles away. Underinvestment in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods compounds this insecurity. But local advocates are fighting back against these disparities, mobilizing community resources to bring healthy foods where they are needed most.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as the limited availability of nutritious foods or the limited ability to acquire them. District residents experience food insecurity due to high prices, low access to transportation, an inability to find healthy or culturally relevant foods, and—most pressingly for many in D.C. Wards 7 and 8—a lack of grocery stores.

Significant geographic disparities in grocery store access exist across the city. There are 74 full-service grocery stores in D.C.—approximately one per square mile—but they are largely concentrated in neighborhoods with higher median incomes, according to a 2024 report from D.C. Hunger Solutions, a nonprofit that conducts advocacy and research on food access.

Ward 3 had the most, with 15 stores to serve its 76,884 residents. Georgetown sits in Ward 2, which has 13 grocery stores for 82,156 residents.

Wards 7 and 8 had the lowest number, with only three full-service grocery stores to serve the area’s combined population of nearly 150,000 people—five times fewer stores than Ward 3 to service almost twice as many residents. Ward 8 only has one supermarket, a Giant, which has been the only grocery store in the ward since 2007.

Geographic distribution of food insecurity has long been associated with the idea of food deserts—neighborhoods with limited access to affordable and nutritious foods due to low incomes, long walking distances to grocery stores, and limited transportation.

“We know that deserts are a naturally occurring part of our ecosystem, and there is still life in deserts,” said LaMonika Jones, director of D.C. Hunger Solutions and author of the report, noting that people still live in neighborhoods with limited access to healthy food. “There is still very much life going on, even though there are areas across the District that have absence of access.”

Jones explained that inequitable geographic distribution of grocery stores in D.C. can be better understood with a different term: food apartheid.

Food insecurity in D.C. is not naturally occurring. Rather, it is the result of decades of discriminatory practices that have displaced and marginalized primarily Black and low-income communities in the District. Jones prefers using “food apartheid” to describe the interconnected, systemic issues that leave Wards 7 and 8 residents with less access to food. Just as other forms of cultural and political apartheid segregate communities through policies that discriminate against them based on race and class, the term “food apartheid” makes clear that food insecurity can be a racialized policy decision.

“Some of the things we see with food apartheid are historical injustices,” Jones said. “What are some of those things that have a longstanding history in the District that [disproportionately] impact communities east of the Anacostia?”

Among these factors is the historic income inequality in Wards 7 and 8, which have the lowest median household incomes compared to other wards—$49,814 and $45,598, respectively—and the highest rates of individuals living below the poverty line of $15,060 per year.

By contrast, every other ward in the District has a median household income of at least $100,000 and boasts at least eight full-service grocery stores. Ward 3, which has the most grocery stores in the District, also has the highest median household income, at $147,968.

Furthermore, Wards 7 and 8 have the highest proportion of Black residents in the District, meaning disparities in food access also occur along racial lines—Wards 2 and 3 are predominantly white. Historic practices of redlining, gentrification, and restrictive zoning have limited the availability of affordable housing in D.C. and led to the significant displacement of the District’s Black residents, particularly to Wards 7 and 8 and neighboring counties in Maryland.

“We also have to look at systemic racism as a big part of this as well, so looking at the system as itself: How has the system set up residents in a way that they are continuing to experience a lack of access?” Jones said.

Wards 7 and 8 also both have limited access to D.C.’s metro system, with only three stops in Ward 7 and two in Ward 8 east of the Anacostia, each on just one metrorail line. Ward 2 alone has five stops and four different lines. According to data collected by DC Health Matters, many households in these wards report not having a vehicle, making it difficult for people to reach grocery stores, especially for older residents and those with limited mobility.

Even where there are grocery stores, there can be disparities in the quality and nutrition of foods on their shelves. Shoppers in some wards may see a lack of fresh produce or have difficulty finding culturally relevant foods, a significant concern for D.C.’s large immigrant communities, who may struggle to find familiar ingredients from their home countries. At standard grocery stores, these items might be more expensive or entirely unavailable, making it difficult to cook foods that reflect their cultural identities while living in D.C.

Trazy Collins, director of the food and clothing programs at Bread for the City, explained that the organization and several partners teamed up to see if there was a difference between the Giant supermarket in Ward 2 and the one in Ward 8. She explained that in Ward 8, there were more lower quality or highly processed foods compared to those available at Ward 2.

The team also noted striking differences in the design of the Ward 8 store, impacting how people experience grocery shopping.

“Even the way that folks feel—when you walk into the Giant in Southeast [D.C.] there’s metal detectors, and you feel like you’re much more surveilled than if you walk into the Giant on 7th Street, and it’s like a whole different world,” Collins said.

Because a multitude of issues shape food insecurity in D.C., solutions that seek to holistically address food security may need to look beyond the scope of just constructing another large supermarket.

“It’s a combination of looking at the system as an entire whole and understanding, ‘What does that system look like?’” Jones said. “Instead of us just saying, there’s no grocery stores in this particular area, let’s just put another one here, sometimes it’s not that easy.”

Jones said that a more feasible solution for many communities is to focus on building up “small footprint” locations rather than large grocery stores. Smaller stores are typically locally owned, giving them a closer connection and greater investment in the community, and are often in more convenient locations for customers.

“Sometimes it’s easier for people to access a smaller footprint store because it’s exactly that: it’s smaller, it’s community run and operated, and centrally located to the residents who live in that community,” Jones said.

D.C. Hunger Solutions developed the Healthy Corners program in partnership with DC Central Kitchen (DCCK) to equip local corner stores with the capacity to sell healthier options like fresh fruits and vegetables.

Alexander Moore (G ’09), chief development officer at DCCK, said the program supported small businesses in Wards 7 and 8 to offer healthy foods they were not selling before, making small improvements with significant impact.

“They didn’t have refrigeration, they couldn’t take a minimum delivery from a traditional produce wholesaler because they were too far from those other routes, and they didn’t have room to put 150 apples in there,” Moore said.

Even if they cannot store or sell as much food as a traditional large supermarket, Moore said that this increase in availability, even on a small scale, makes a major difference. The Healthy Corners stores could receive produce shipments to sell a greater variety of healthier foods to their customers, and the program spread awareness to local residents about the nutritious options their local stores now provide.

Moore explained that many food advocates run into problems creating more stable food security because the families they serve do not have the resources to access the healthy foods that these services provide them on their own. For example, Moore said that children who receive free healthy lunches from DCCK’s school programs ask their parents for similar meals at home, but live in neighborhoods where those foods are inaccessible.

“This is where so many food advocates run into challenges, where they set communities up for failure, because they say ‘eat this, not this’ or ‘grow this, not that,’” Moore said. “If you’re not actually thinking holistically and creating the opportunity for communities to choose, then you’re going to be limited.”

Since food insecurity is a systemic issue, Moore also pointed to policy shifts in the D.C. government as a way to expand food access. DCCK advocated to change D.C. laws so that corner stores could accept Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefits alongside Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, which are government assistance programs that help families in providing food for their households. Starting in 2021, three corner stores in Wards 7 and 8 began accepting WIC benefits.

“People were eligible for these benefits and not able to use them right in their own neighborhood,” Moore said. “But now, those dollars are flowing to small, local businesses, and families can get healthy food and infant formula right on their own block.”

To Moore, investments in small businesses like Healthy Corners are an important step to eventually bringing larger grocery stores to areas that need them. He said the success of Healthy Corners stores can demonstrate to potential investors looking to build grocery stores that the same demand for nutritious choices exists in historically food insecure neighborhoods.

“It’s getting people in this city and in cities across the country to say, ‘Wait a minute, can these small businesses actually be part of the solution?’” Moore said.

Jones added that the District has taken important steps to improve access, like the Nourish DC Collaborative and the Food Access Fund, which provide financing and technical assistance to new grocery stores, corner stores, and farmers’ markets.

For Collins, increasing access to healthy food options in Wards 7 and 8 is just one part of a bigger picture in creating food justice and food sovereignty. Collins emphasized the need to directly reach communities who have been systematically denied access to food. The resources are there, she said, it’s just about making sure they’re made available to those who need them.

“There’s enough food in the world for everybody; it’s just not shared equitably,” Collins said. “Food sovereignty is more like shifting it to the people who have had that right or that freedom taken away and prioritizing those folks.”


Samantha Monteiro
Sam is a junior in the SFS and the Executive News Editor. She likes sitcoms, WhatsApp stickers, and all shades of green.


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