People in Moore Haven in Glades County have been living without a grocery store for several months after losing their only one late last year. Moore Haven is a small town east of Lake Okeechobee with a population just under 2,000. This change means the whole town is now designated as a "food desert."
Gary Bean, a resident of Moore Haven, sells fruits and vegetables out of his white pickup truck in the parking lot in front of an abandoned building. These days he is selling mostly tomatoes and watermelons. And even though it’s not much, it’s one of the only places in this entire town where people can buy fresh produce.
That’s because there’s been no supermarket here since a local grocery store closed last November. So, for the past several months, residents of Moore Haven have been traveling 15 miles to a nearby town with a Wal-Mart for perishables.
Bean said actually a couple supermarkets have come and gone in the past few years.
“We need a supermarket here,” Bean said. “I’ve been here about 27 years and we have always had one until a few years ago. One come in –IGA—and it failed. I don’t know why the grocery stores don’t make it. There’s enough people around here.”
It’s a mystery for most people here. Coelle Boone, who also lives in Moore Haven, said some theories have started to circulate.
“People say they can’t pay the light bill because the light bill is so high at the grocery store,” Boone said. People say that the food is too high. I don’t know it’s all kinds of things.”
Tracy Whirls with the Glades County Economic Development Council has been working to get a grocery store back up and running in Moore Haven. She said there are a couple of factors here.
“Well, I think part of the problem is that there has been a change in people’ shopping habits,” she explained.
Whirls said a few years ago a local supermarket was doing well, but things changed in recent years.
“You’ve had the Wal-Mart-ization of America,” Whirls said. “And so folks that have the ability to look not only for lower prices, but also a mixture of general merchandise and that sort of thing, some of those folks started gravitating toward Wal-Mart anyway.”
Whirls said this has made it hard for a supermarket to stay open.
Boone said because the town lost its only supermarket, most everyone is now getting their groceries at gas stations and dollar stores. He said people who have cars drive over to slightly bigger cities such as Clewiston or Labelle.
“We have no place to shop here really—none, but Dollar General, Family Dollar,” he said. “It is a very big problem. Very big problem.”
This problem has a name. By most definitions, Moore Haven is now considered a “food desert.” According to the USDA, food deserts are communities with at least 500 people residing more than one mile from a supermarket or large grocery store. Basically, it’s a place where nutritious foods are difficult to obtain.
And there’s all sorts of research-- some of it disputed-- that correlates food deserts with poor health outcomes. According to a 2010 survey from the CDC, Glades County’s rates of hypertension and diabetes are already above the state average.
A state lawmaker has been trying to pass a bill for a few years that would provide incentives for big grocers like Publix to open in food deserts in Florida. But, that bill hasn’t had enough political will behind it.
Whirls said she’s not even sure that would help. She said she’s tried to get big grocers into Moore Haven, but there’s just not enough people living here.
“It’s nice to have incentives, but any commercial project is going to be driven by market factors,” Whirls said. “So, it will be unrealistic to expect Publix or something like that to come here.”
Whirls said she’s working with a client now to possibly takeover the old IGA supermarket that closed down last fall. There’s even talk about opening a market at a new location. But, it’s been several months and nothing is finalized. She said with some creative management, a grocery store could thrive in her town. Whirls doesn’t even like talking about Moore Haven’s status as a food desert. She said she has concerns it will make problems worse.
“I wouldn’t want folks to think there aren’t opportunities here,” Whirls said. “Just like probably for 30 years there wasn’t a drug store, there’s a drug store now. For a long time there wasn’t a private physician’s office in town and there is one now. So, we fully expect that in the not too distant future we will have a grocery store of some kind or another.”
In the meantime, a non-profit called Good Wheels hopes to get funding for a new route once a week from Moore Haven to a Wal-Mart in Clewiston. Since the town doesn’t have any public transportation, the route could help offset the cost of driving the 30 mile round trip, which could be a big help for some. According to U.S. Census data, Moore Haven’s median individual income is only about $15,000.
