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RELATED LINKS

• Community Health Councils, Inc.
• "Food Choices Inferior in Poorer Neighborhoods"
• Ms. Galloway-Gilliam's bio

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Tavis: We continue our 'Road to Health' series tonight with a look at the importance of healthy food options in poor and minority neighborhoods. Lark Galloway-Gilliam is the executive director of Community Health Councils, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving health conditions in disadvantaged areas. Lark, nice to have you on the program.

Lark Galloway-Gilliam: Thank you for having me.

Tavis: Let me start with something that is obvious to you. I'm told, I just met you, but I'm told that you live near where my office is right down on Crenshaw.

Galloway-Gilliam: Right off of Crenshaw.

Tavis: So for those watching across the country and don't know what Crenshaw is, Crenshaw is, like, in the heart of the black neighborhood right here in LA. And I live, my office, rather, is right on Crenshaw Boulevard. I live around the corner. So you live near me.

Galloway-Gilliam: Yes.

Tavis: All right. So, when we talk about this, you and I understand what we're talking about here. But there are a lot of folk watching across the country right now who really don't understand the fact that a lot of people of color in America end up not being healthy, borne primarily of the fact that they ain't, that's right, ain't got no healthy food options where they live.

They can't imagine that we don't have choice meat and fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, and we have to drive 20, 30 minutes to get to that. This is your conversation, not mine, but I want you to understand that we're in the same neighborhood, so I understand this, but talk to those persons watching who don't understand it. This is a real serious problem.

Galloway-Gilliam: This is a serious problem. I think people do take for granted the fact that in many communities at the end of the day if you're tired, then you have children in tow, that you can go down the street and find a decent meal for your family. In a community like South LA, at the end of the day, my choices are McDonald's, Fatburger, Burger King, and if I'm lucky, I can come over to El Pollo next door to your offices. But you'd have to drive 20 plus minutes into other areas in order to find a healthy meal.

And we are eating out more. And there are serious implications about that, not only in terms of not having access, but then what's going into our bodies, the kind of food, the high level of grease and fat and the preservatives. We don't have access to the kinds of things that keep our bodies healthy. And, of course, this nation is becoming increasingly preoccupied with this concept of obesity, and assuming that people have a choice, it's people's personal responsibility to lose weight and to be healthy. When in fact those resources to support a healthy lifestyle are absent in so many of our communities.

Tavis: So part of this is the fact that we don't have these choices, and even without these choices, we gotta do what we gotta do to try to live healthy lives, not for them, but for us. So we gotta take care of ourselves, even though we have limited choices. Part of the problem also, I think, part of the blame, quite frankly, has to be laid at the feet of corporate America.

Those companies, those stores, those food chains that for whatever reasons think that it doesn't make any sense to put a store with top quality choices in a neighborhood of color, be it black or brown. So what do we say to those institutions watching, who for whatever reason don't think, that apparently, we like to eat or that we spend money or would spend money on quality choice food?

Galloway-Gilliam: I think they need to rethink their perception of black and brown in poor communities. You know, you see in areas like Rochester between 1970 and 1995, 42 supermarkets. By 1995, eight left in the city. Same thing happening here in South LA. But folks buy, we spend money, and we spend big money. A study out of Pepperdine showed that folks within South LA spend some over $400 million outside of their community trying to find healthy food.

So they know the purchasing power is there. The question is, do you want to be in a black and brown community? I really think it's a corporate decision to not do that. Just as we've seen redlining around housing and insurance, the same kind of pattern is happening.

Tavis: And yet the numbers are clear that when, I used to work for Tom Bradley long before I got into TV and radio, and we had to fight, I'm not gonna call the name of the store, but we had to fight on the Mayor's, you know the store I'm talking about. Right on Crenshaw, two blocks from my office, we had to fight like the devil to get that store, that chain, to put a store on Crenshaw Boulevard. Once they did, it became the highest grossing store in the whole western United States.

So once they got in there, they realized there was money to be made. Now over time, I was just there the other day, that store has changed ownership and they actually have a new section in that store now where I think they're starting to bring in some fresher food. But it took them years to figure this out. So, in the meantime and in between time, while they are stuck on stupid and don't get it, what do we say to the black and brown people who live in these communities who don't have these healthy choices?

Galloway-Gilliam: Well, I think it's time for us to step up and let our voices be known. We're running a project here in Los Angeles, it's part of the Center for Disease Control. It's funded programs throughout the nation, it's about 40 of us in total that are looking at the fact that communities are dying disproportionately of heart disease, diabetes, and these are low income black and brown communities. What can we do?

We can change the context of our communities. We're working with Ralph's supermarkets, it's a part of the Kroger store chain, to get them to come back into our community, and where they are, to clean up their act because you go into these markets. You're right. not only do you not find good food, but the conditions are horrible, and the market that we're talking about, they're just now getting to the point of renovating it, because community pressure is saying, "We're not gonna shop here. Our dollars are as powerful as any other person's dollars. We deserve better care. We deserve better food.'

So I think consumers can make a big difference, but we've gotta get organized. We've gotta put that pressure on corporations. We also have to put pressure on our elected officials because there's a lot that can be done to bring incentives back into our communities for these companies to come back into our communities. And it's time that our politicians understand the relationship between food and health, and the economic growth of a community, and join in partnership with communities and make these changes happen.

Tavis: Well, I'm sure the Mayor in this city at least is listening right about now, but this really is finally a life. I mean, we can talk about this ad nauseam, but this really is at the end of the day a life or death issue for the people who live in these communities.

Galloway-Gilliam: It is. It absolutely is. When you look at the death rate in the African American community in the neighborhood that we live in, it's twice as high as any other place in the nation. You take blacks into other parts of the city and you see, while we're suffering from disease, nothing like what we see in these areas in which there's just neglect.

In which the resources have really left our community, and it's almost like a wasteland in many regards, and it's time now that we say, you know, "Come back into these neighborhoods. They can be profitable, we deserve better.' And where need be, get our own businesses going.

Tavis: You know what's really sad about this, this is really sad, and I shouldn't even say this on television. But since I come up here every day to do the TV show up here on the nice part of town with my white friends, on my way back to the neighborhood, I stop and get something to eat.

Galloway-Gilliam: You better do that, because you won't find it.

Tavis: Yeah, before I get back to the neighborhood where there ain't no good choices. Anyway, Lark Galloway-Gilliam, nice to have you on the program and thank you for the work that you are doing.

Galloway-Gilliam: Thank you so much.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. That's our show for tonight. You can catch me on the weekends on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. See you back here next time on PBS. Until then, good night from Los Angeles. Thanks for watching. And as always, keep the faith.