Aid offered to NE OKC after grocery closes
To help ease the blow of the Smart Saver grocery s t ore in northeast Oklahoma City closing this week, community partners will provide free transportation services and extra food distribution to residents in need.
A city health task force led by Ward 7 City Councilwoman Nikki Nice has compiled a we b s i t e , n e o k c f o o d . c o m,
listing food distribution sites and times in northeast Oklahoma City, as well as coordinating free bus rides through EMBARK and others to the Walmart Neighborhood Market on NW 23 Street west of Pennsylvania Avenue.
“With one of the last major grocery stores on the northeast side closing this week, the food desert crisis deepened. But t he OKC Health Task Force is already at work making sure tomorrow is a better day ,” Nice said in a news release.
Various areas in northeast Oklahoma City are considered food deserts, which means residents do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables because of transportation issues, general poverty and a lack of full-service grocery stores with healthy food options.
EMBARK will pick up riders for free throughout the week, and buses will leave from the former Smart Saver grocery store parking lot at NE 23 Street and Martin Luther King Avenue, as well as regular bus stops nearby, and take riders to the Walmart Neighborhood Market.
Other transportation options will begin Wednesday with rides from OU Medicine and the YMCA. Riders can go to the Ralph Ellison Library, across the street from the former Smart Saver, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on weekdays to be taken to the Walmart Neighborhood Market.
The task force is also organizing extra pop-up food distribution sites in the area and is helping gather extra food items for existing sites, according to the press release.
Jeane en Pointer, chief strategy officer for the Lynn Institute and a member of the task force, said the group was originally formed to tackle the broad issue of food deserts in the northeast sector. Luckily, when word of the Smart Saver's closing reached the group, information on distribution sites, available resources and community partners interested in helping was already being compiled.
“We moved from addressing this problem on a longer timeline to addressing a very immediate need ,” Pointer said .“This task force and others who have joined us have a heart f or northeast Oklahoma City. They, with determination and compassion and resources, are coming together as a force to address this issue and take care of the people who need food and transportation.”
Pointer said flyers will be distributed, a Facebook page has been created and the website will continue to be updated with current information.
Bus routes will be evaluated over the next few weeks depending on how many individuals are using the services.
Nice recently led the charge for the city council to implement a restriction on the number of dollar stores that can open in the 73111 ZIP code, which is located in northeast Oklahoma City and has some of the worst health outcomes in the county.
In some cases, dollar stores have been linked to the closing of full-service grocery stores close by and often don't offer fresh produce.
“People want to be healthy; they want to feel that they are just as adequate ,” Nice recently told the Oklahoman. “We don't want one ZIP code to determine their life expectancy or how they feel about their chances or what their next steps are.”