Food Deserts – Denver, CO

Corner stores in NE Denver part of pilot program for food deserts, By Colleen O’Connor, October 14, 2014, Denver Post: “Hip-hop artist Kingpen Ken stops by the Gem Food Mart in his northeast Denver neighborhood on the way to the recording studio, and plunks down two bottles of water and an orange juice on the counter. ‘It’s just better to eat healthy things before you go to the studio,’ he said. ‘It’s better energy for the day. If you eat candy, it’s weird energy all day.’ This colorful corner store, painted orange and lime green, sits at the intersection of East 30th Avenue and Downing Street in the Whittier neighborhood, which is considered a food desert, far from a full-service grocer. It’s one of five corner stores in a pilot program called the Healthy Corner Store Initiative, started in August by the city and county of Denver’s Department of Environmental Health, and funded by a grant of more than $327,000 from the Colorado Health Foundation…”