Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Imperial Beach is a food desert

Part-way to opening co-op — 220 signed up, need 1000

Kim Frink: "People are driving to other places like Sprouts, seven miles away.”
Kim Frink: "People are driving to other places like Sprouts, seven miles away.”

Back in 2013 Wally’s Marketplace, located in Imperial Beach, carried outdated and expired food on their shelves. Two years later, the nearby Save-A-Lot—run by the same owner—sold a customer 90 pounds of spoiled chicken, sparking angry protests outside the store.

OB Peoples Food is lending advice.

The incidents confirmed in the minds of residents that Imperial Beach was a food desert. The USDA defines the term as having at least 500 people or 33 percent of a city’s population reside more than one mile from a large grocery store. In an interview, board president Kim Frink and board vice-president Shannon Ratliff of SunCoast Market Co-op explained that even when a grocery store exists in an underserved neighborhood, it often provides poor quality food.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Frink said that Wally’s Marketplace went out of business, “but of course a full-service or natural foods grocery store didn’t come into their space. We’re getting a Dollar Tree.”

Imperial Beach covers 4.4 square miles and has a population of about 27,000. According to data from 2010, about 49 percent identify as Hispanic and the median household income is $52,000.

Ratliff noted that the city has three 7-Elevens, but only two grocery stores: La Posta and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. Ratliff said, “It’s a money problem… Communities that are primarily people of color and lower income do not have access to full-service grocery stores. In a lot of ways, they’re considered undesirable from a financial perspective.”

Unsatisfied, some residents started a movement called “Bring Trader Joe’s to IB” in 2015 hoping the store would open inside a new retail development at 9th and Palm Avenue. The mayor and city manager got involved, trying to entice the grocery store to the city. Those plans fizzled. In a phone interview, city manager Andy Hall explained that IB didn’t meet Trader Joe’s formula, which includes certain demographic and density requirements.

Ratliff said that’s when her group realized “If we want something, we need to do it ourselves.”

They reached out to Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market, asking for help on how Imperial Beach could erect a similar food co-op. The OB market, which has been in existence for over 45 years and has been profitable, is the only food co-op in San Diego County.

With their advice, from 2015 to 2017 volunteers from the IB, including Frink and Ratliff, set up their own corporation, established a nine-member board and created their name. They conducted a feasibility study, surveying 430 people. They found that 73 percent did most of their grocery shopping outside their neighborhood.

“That’s a lot of time and money people are spending to drive to other places like Sprouts, which is seven miles away,” Frink said.

SunCoast’s biggest hurdle is finding owner members. Frink says their food co-op needs about half the money coming from the community, so in order to open a grocery market SunCoast must find enough owner members to pay the $200 buy-in fee. Members then own shares of the co-op and can vote on decisions. Frink explains, “We’ll need about 500 owners before we start looking for a location… We’ll need about 1,000 owners before we open.”

So far, SunCoast only has about 220 owner members.

Both Frink and Ratliff hope the space will be about 4,000 square feet. Although the location is still unknown, they note that Imperial Beach is cleaning up its worn buildings and empty lots.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island
Kim Frink: "People are driving to other places like Sprouts, seven miles away.”
Kim Frink: "People are driving to other places like Sprouts, seven miles away.”

Back in 2013 Wally’s Marketplace, located in Imperial Beach, carried outdated and expired food on their shelves. Two years later, the nearby Save-A-Lot—run by the same owner—sold a customer 90 pounds of spoiled chicken, sparking angry protests outside the store.

OB Peoples Food is lending advice.

The incidents confirmed in the minds of residents that Imperial Beach was a food desert. The USDA defines the term as having at least 500 people or 33 percent of a city’s population reside more than one mile from a large grocery store. In an interview, board president Kim Frink and board vice-president Shannon Ratliff of SunCoast Market Co-op explained that even when a grocery store exists in an underserved neighborhood, it often provides poor quality food.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Frink said that Wally’s Marketplace went out of business, “but of course a full-service or natural foods grocery store didn’t come into their space. We’re getting a Dollar Tree.”

Imperial Beach covers 4.4 square miles and has a population of about 27,000. According to data from 2010, about 49 percent identify as Hispanic and the median household income is $52,000.

Ratliff noted that the city has three 7-Elevens, but only two grocery stores: La Posta and Grocery Outlet Bargain Market. Ratliff said, “It’s a money problem… Communities that are primarily people of color and lower income do not have access to full-service grocery stores. In a lot of ways, they’re considered undesirable from a financial perspective.”

Unsatisfied, some residents started a movement called “Bring Trader Joe’s to IB” in 2015 hoping the store would open inside a new retail development at 9th and Palm Avenue. The mayor and city manager got involved, trying to entice the grocery store to the city. Those plans fizzled. In a phone interview, city manager Andy Hall explained that IB didn’t meet Trader Joe’s formula, which includes certain demographic and density requirements.

Ratliff said that’s when her group realized “If we want something, we need to do it ourselves.”

They reached out to Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market, asking for help on how Imperial Beach could erect a similar food co-op. The OB market, which has been in existence for over 45 years and has been profitable, is the only food co-op in San Diego County.

With their advice, from 2015 to 2017 volunteers from the IB, including Frink and Ratliff, set up their own corporation, established a nine-member board and created their name. They conducted a feasibility study, surveying 430 people. They found that 73 percent did most of their grocery shopping outside their neighborhood.

“That’s a lot of time and money people are spending to drive to other places like Sprouts, which is seven miles away,” Frink said.

SunCoast’s biggest hurdle is finding owner members. Frink says their food co-op needs about half the money coming from the community, so in order to open a grocery market SunCoast must find enough owner members to pay the $200 buy-in fee. Members then own shares of the co-op and can vote on decisions. Frink explains, “We’ll need about 500 owners before we start looking for a location… We’ll need about 1,000 owners before we open.”

So far, SunCoast only has about 220 owner members.

Both Frink and Ratliff hope the space will be about 4,000 square feet. Although the location is still unknown, they note that Imperial Beach is cleaning up its worn buildings and empty lots.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Wild Wild Wets, Todo Mundo, Creepy Creeps, Laura Cantrell, Graham Nancarrow

Rock, Latin reggae, and country music in Little Italy, Oceanside, Carlsbad, Harbor Island
Next Article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader