We have a "food desert" in my town. It is the high crime area with very few businesses for obvious reasons. The ones that are there have bars on their windows. Kinda sux but if they would just quit robbing those businesses, maybe they wouldn't keep moving out. Just my take on the situation.

Ever since the riots of the 60's and seventies blacks I knew said they wanted shopping centers but just got abortion clinics.

Bless Terry Jeffries, he should know that the socialist masters in NYC and Chicago RESIST AND OPPOSE bringing in grocery stores. Ironically, there is no need for subsidies, Wallmart will bring stores and jobs, if they can just get a permit.

I have watched Republicans guide a revival of the business community in Riviera Beach FL. The first thing residents wanted was a grocery store and now they have three. People look prosperous to me.

This ignorant beast is a perfect fit for her hubby and the obama administration. The free market has had a solution to the "food desert" problem (if there is one) on the table for years. It's called Walmart. Walmart has been trying to put superstores in the inner cities for years. They are kept out by democrat pols (many of them blacks who represent these poor urban districts) and their retail union thugs! When they finally opened one in Chicago, literally thousands of folks lined up for a chance to get one the available "coolie wage, no medical insurance" jobs. The store, and the locals, are doing fine. Michelle's $400mm scam is just another stunt to get money from white taxpayers and transfer it to black democrat crooks. It will do nothing to help michelle's "beloved" poor urban blacks. Remember, michell's, oh so important job at the UC, $300,000 a year job (eliminated when dumbo became president) was simply to facilitate denying health care at the University of Chicago Hospital to poor blacks so the beds could go to paying customers and that Valarie Jarrett, M&O's #1 BF, made all of her money as a chicago slumlord, financed by Government programs. I wonder how long it will take Orkin to fumigate the WH after these disgusting scumbags are thrown out.

I worked in one of those heart of the "ghetto" food deserts where up to 13 detectives worked feverioushly arresting the petty thieves who thought they had the right to steal food. Our orders were not to chase any thief -the local residents would hurt you if you tried. The place was burned down deliberately in the MLK riots and over the next days the newspapers were telling Michelle's Obama's identical sad tale that there was no food withing walking distance. My mother would have had a saying about this behavior that a three year old could easily understand.

For this, we should cry? For this, we should be taxed? Slavery was of the body - the left has instituted slavery of the soul. Let them build and service their own deserts, it might just restore some of the digniity that the race pimps and victimology spreading politicians had taken away with willing support.

MIchelle Antoinette will push price control legislation that will result in higher prices in the 'burbs to subsidize the theft that plagues the stores in the inner city. It is a lose-lose idea than won't fix the problem, but it will make everyone worse off.

To HughGlass AMEN TO THAT BROTHER

This woman is on a different planet than most of us. She is referring to the "inner cities" of course and who lives there? I live in a rural community and have no trouble or problems getting to a grocery store. Why don't they have grocery stores where Ms Odamya lives? This woman is a HUGE JOKE!

There is no such thing as a food desert, but there is a political desert which (1) tolerates crime, driving out business and (2) does not tolerate Walmart. Gosh, I wonder why there's a problem?

The reason that there ARE Food Deserts, is because people that LOOK JUST LIKE HER, Shoplift these stores out of business.

Can you hear me, Mrs. Hussein? I'm talking to you. These FOOD DESERT are there for the same reason that the JAILS are full of people who look JUST LIKE YOU.

Coincidence?

This is a complex problem not easily solved by political answers. Many would have a valid argument that Wal-Marts would not be the solution. Empowering people with jobs and money to spend, empowering folks with small business creation, and spending more on crime prevention...solutions to issues of poverty and crime, IMHO, would be ground up, not top down...and will most likely not come from Republicans any more than the Democrats...and will definitely not come from those who refer to God's children as "ignorant beast"

ALl for helping children eat heallthy BUT Would MRS O shop there. ???? 400 mil for 7 years =??? YIKES once again not a full deck here .stores robbed, burnt down, lives in danger What is wrong with getting n a bus on sat and going to your local closest store...

I (we) live in a rural area, the closest grocery store is 7 miles away and there is no public transportation and yet we are able to get groceries, even fresh fruit. Maybe I can talk MO into giving us a couple of mill so I don't have to plan my trips to town. I know, a high speed rail with stops every 200 yds so I don't have to walk far, and the city folk can pay for it!

Hasn't this same Mrs. Obama lamenting the obesity problem we have here in the US? I can recall a time in my early Navy days that I had to ride my bicycle to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Before I had the bicycle, I walked. Seems to me a nice 2 mile round-trip walk 2 or 3 times a week would be good exercise for just about anyone. Drag those kids from in front of the idiot box and have them help carry those grocery bags,too! Might do them some physical good as well!

Who really benefits from all the small store owners - that traditionally lose out to a Walmart? Well - the consumer in some aspects such as with respect to variety - yes. With respect to prices - no. But who else benefits from the existance of all those small stores - Gangs and groups of thugs who extort "protection money" from them. It is easy to intimidate a small busines person who is by themselves - intimidation of Walmart - with all of it's megabucks is another matter. They could hire defense contractors back from Iraq to stop store pilferage. So who really does not want an intercity Walmart and Why?

1) 23.5 Million translates into .078% of the total population, if my math is correct, less than 10%.

2) I thought the neocommies LOVED public transportation, so now they say it's a hardship for people to have to use it to buy some groceries?

3) As noted in the article, a lot of those folks live less than a mile away, have they ever heard of shopping carts and actually WALKING to said store? A win, win; walking is good exercise, and a wonderful aid in weight loss. Plus they can shop for groceries.

4) Also mentioned above by a poster, Walmart and other large box-stores would GLADLY come in and build if they hadn't been so opposed by the neocommies. Once again the law of unintended consequences strikes.

5) I live here in Western KY, and there is a small local public transportation company that makes regular stops at a strip mall that includes a Walmart and a krogers. I had availed myself of that public transport at times and had regularly seen people carrying bags of groceries on the bus with little difficulty.

6) Perhaps this is the first attempt by the neocommies to set up food distribution centers so that the GOVERNMENT can feed the peons....

A government program to spend money on "crime prevention" would be as big a joke as Michelle Obama's proposal. It's been tried many times, and we still have high rates of crime in the poor areas. Has anyone considered that a lot of criminals are poor because they prefer to steal instead of work? Crime doesn't pay, especially if you prey on other poor people. The criminals who chase the larger stores out of the slums don't have enough marbles in their heads, and simply teaching them the reading, writing and arithmetic they refused to learn in school isn't going to help that.

The fact is, there is no government solution for what is ultimately a spiritual problem. What government can do is recognize once again the vital role the Gospel of Jesus Christ has in our society, encourage churches to work in the poor neighborhoods, and provide adequate police protection for them.

One other thing. Contrary to Mrs. Obama's claim, some convenience stores do carry fresh fruits and vegetables. However, they limit the variety to items that move very quickly (bananas) or have a long shelf life (onions and potatoes). Why spend money and scarce floor space to stock produce that will rot on the shelves? The other stuff probably doesn't sell in these places.

Since it went unmentioned in the text I have to wonder how the $400 mil. would be spent (paid to whom and why?) to alleviate this non-issue?

Since the figure is relatively low in the scale of govt. spending, perhaps the goal is realistically just another slush fund for Obamaite cronies without any other goal at all :>/

I agree with the comments above. It's liberal Democrats who block stores from opening up and spread lying smear campaigns about stores like Wal-Mart so the gullible public thinks Wal-Mart is "bad". It is also the liberal Democrat "minority" voter block that is shoplifting from the stores, defacing and destroying store property, and... MY BIGGEST PET PEAVE...stealing the damn $1000 grocery carts. There are government subsidized apartments (welfare entitlement victimization mindset crime nests) that were built in a subsection of my regular working, tax-paying neighborhood. Every damn day, there are many grocery carts sitting all along the gov't subsidized apartment entrance and in the ditches and left on the sidewalks. They stay there forever. The "career victim takers" don't care enough to get their obese, food stamp consuming, non-working, Oprah-watching butts up and return the carts. No... they get a new one every time and they pile up around the apartments, bringing down the value of all of our homes around here. Each cart costs $1000 if I remember correctly. What kind of business can absorb that kind of loss every day X 20 people? I have many times gotten my 3 kids and we walk down there and return carts and I live much farther away from the Wal-Mart than the gov't housing place. A lot of the carts are flipped over and used for seating, they are purposely bent and ruined and rusted. This happens because they are not taught manners and right from wrong and the value of a dollar and how somebody (not them) worked to make that cart and somebody worked to pay for that cart. The "takers" are taught by liberal politicians that they are a lifetime victim who is owed everything...cell phone, house, food, internet, free school lunch and breakfast, free college, etc. (while I can't afford to pay for my kids to go to college and they work 2 jobs to pay their way to a little community college..."minorities" like Obama and Michelle and all the blacks get free tuition to nice universities. Not fair. I'm the taxpayer paying for them but can't afford to pay for my own kids.) And the Wal-Mart has hired all "minorities" and most of them treat you so rudely it is unbelievable. No manners, no customer service. Their attitude is I hate you if you're not black. You owe me. My family is caucasian but we had no money and I couldn't afford to go to college. I went to a technical school and I've worked fulltime since I was 18 and have paid the way for these people to treat me like crap. This makes me so mad and I'm so sick of it.

Since it went unmentioned in the text I have to wonder how the $400 mil. would be spent (paid to whom and why?) to alleviate this non-issue?

Since the figure is relatively low in the scale of govt. spending, perhaps the goal is realistically just another slush fund for Obamaite cronies without any other goal at all :>/

Since it went unmentioned in the text I have to wonder how the $400 mil. would be spent (paid to whom and why?) to alleviate this non-issue?

Since the figure is relatively low in the scale of govt. spending, perhaps the goal is realistically just another slush fund for Obamaite cronies without any other goal at all :>/

Great project for you, Michelle, after you and BO leave the White House – build a supermarket in every “food desert” in the country WITH PRIVATE FUND. BO has a lot of Muslim friends - you know, the ones who funded his presidential campaign – and they, along with his billionaire bailout friends, could easily make this happen. And after you are finished, for the second time in your life you will be able to be proud of America.

Oh – I thought Democrats loved public transportation. You are eager to foist it on the rest of us.

One store here in Tulsa has the answer to all those shopping carts....charge a fee for using them, that will be refunded only if the cart is returned to the cart stall. Cost is only .25 but it sure has cut down on the number of loose or lost shopping carts around the neighborhood.

Reese and Mindy B hit the "nail on the head". Both are right and I whole heartedly agree! I'm also caucasian and all the blacks act like I have done something terribly wrong to them. I treat everyone with respect - and I think blacks and other minorities should be taught the same values.

Maybe MJR and my wife can get together and petition the Anointed One's wife to build us a super market out here in the boondocks. She Who Must Be Obey'd (my wife) shops once a month at the big store in Tucson. A mere forty miles miles away.

However, a new store out here might be vexed by the cattle milling around and chewing on things, the hosses, er, doing their business in the parking lot, the coyotes doing unauthorized shopping, bark scorpions everywhere, rattlesnakes galore, and the ever present mojados (that's Spanish for "wets.") cluttering up the joint.

Anecdote: We have a very good friend who was born in Mexico, now a naturalized American citizen - and very proud of that fact - who likes to shop at Costco. She travels about forty miles out of her way to go to a Costco aside from the one that is a mere eight or ten miles away from her domicile. The reason? And I quote: "That main store is always full of Mexican wetbacks who don't know their butts from a hot rock and take forf**kingever to make up their minds on what to buy, usually, at the check out! It would be a great store, except for all the GD Mexicans!"

Hmmmm. Is that racist? A rhetorical question.

If Madam Soetoro would like to see some REAL "food deserts" all she has to do is take a sojourn to poverty stricken, rural Mexico. She might find it illuminating to know that obesity is hardly to be found in those particular venues, diabetes is close to nonexistent, and a piece of Yanqui hard candy is valued at more than a fistful of diamonds. But, of course, such a journey won't happen due to Los Zetas expertise with the Barrett .50 cal, and her fat head being an exceptionally easy target. ¡Ojala!

victims one and all-I don't know who is worse-the victims themselves or the liberal scum that makes a living off their supposed "misery"-Rugged individualism is dead and gone-welcome to the new order of pathetic weakness and entitlement-the whole thing stinks

I forgot to mention I read an entry by an esteemed colleague who responds here regularly and he's come up with the solution-if you are on the public dole-you don't vote.The only real way to end the insanity

Since when does a First Lady request any money from Congress. And Michelle, if you observe the shopping baskets of the low income, food stamp using fatsos in the Super Market, you'll see very little lettuce, fresh fruit, etc. and loads of potato chips, fast food garbage, etc. This is what these "folks" will buy, wherever they shop.

It's so beautifully arranged

on the plate--you know someone's

fingers have been all over it.

---Julia Child (1912-2004)

Was this an Executive Order? We the People should decide where our money is going. Can you say,

The Constitution folks

Article II, Section 4

Article I, Section 3

Honor, Trust, or Profit?

Agree 100% with all that has been posted here. Michelle Obama is just one more in a long line of lying, crooked, huckster Democraps. What a blatant scam!

The Obama's think money solves everything. Especially taxpayers money.

@hughglass - clearly you don't understand the beast that is walmart and the farce they create as a place that saves americans money. not only do they abuse the employees they hire in america by expecting them to get their healthcare from the state (costing you money) but they also abuse third world country sweat shops expecting them to make their products for less than nothing in poor conditions all the while having to pay walmart back for their housing. that is not a plight anyone should ever have to deal with. but you are probably obsessed by the almighty dollar and far less concerned about the health of your fellow american - when you should be because their lack of nutrition is costing you in taxes. with food giants like monsanto, conagra, smithfield, etc controlling everything we eat with genetically modified corn we are putting everyone at risk. your niavete that cost should be the first concern as opposed to quality is absurd. wake up. YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT. having healthy organic food that nature made for us provides more nourishment than anything the dividend-concerned-ceo at walmart can provide you or any american citizen.

@jackie - clearly you have never paid attention to any first lady since they have all had their pet projects and requested money from congress. flotus laura bush requested money for women in the middle east, secretary clinton requested money for health care for all americans, barbara bush asked to support literacy programs. as for your socio-economic stereotypes you are clearly biased. and did you ever think that maybe these "folks" are struggling in a time that was caused by none other than...wait for it...george h.w. bush's administration's deregulation? so keep your bigoted thoughts to yourself and start to think about how we can all together - through education - solve this problem.

just think. if you were educated properly you would know that all first ladies have a stance and use that to get congress to promote agendas usually ignored by big business.

@jackie - clearly you have never paid attention to any first lady since they have all had their pet projects and requested money from congress. flotus laura bush requested money for women in the middle east, secretary clinton requested money for health care for all americans, barbara bush asked to support literacy programs. as for your socio-economic stereotypes you are clearly biased. and did you ever think that maybe these "folks" are struggling in a time that was caused by none other than...wait for it...george h.w. bush's administration's deregulation? so keep your bigoted thoughts to yourself and start to think about how we can all together - through education - solve this problem.

just think. if you were educated properly you would know that all first ladies have a stance and use that to get congress to promote agendas usually ignored by big business.

Funny, out here in CA some who possess EBT cards seem to find their way to Las Vegas Casinos, Cruises, and other vacations and use thos EBT cards at the ATMs. I'm sorry the lazy, fat people made the choice to conveniently eat at the local burger shop in lieu of using taxpayer funded transportation to get to the grocery market. In some inner cities, telephone and internet are used to have groceries delivered as well. We taxpayers have also funded cell phones, computers, internet access accounts, and even iPods to these people!

And by the way...you fat, lazy people, take the meat and cheese off the hamburger and you have a lettuce, tomato, and onion sandwich with ketchup, mustard, and mayo....Yummy...and good for you too!

Maybe Michelle could teach them all how to plant urban gardens. A little seed, some water and voila a nice good for you vegetable!

What is her excuse for being rather large ! Is there no fruit markets in DC . It appears to me that there might be more hamburger joints than fruit stands ! LMAO

Does Govt. control fit in here anywhere? I have lived inner-city, suburban and now rural. Used to walk to the grocery store and push the cart home and then take it back. Used to drive to the same. Now I enjoy the freedom of my own place and the drive to town. Makes me feel good that I don't have close neighbors, about a quarter-mile away. The problem isn't the grocery stores, It's the scum living near them. Mostly minority and no hope so they steal because they are owed it. I find it ironic that most all inner-city people are Dems. It's the hand-outs folks. The Dems. shit on thier own and they keep supporting them, and then cry oppression, but they turn right around and vote them in again. Minneapolis Minnesota in 1966, the blacks in MY neighborhood burnt down the bussines's and then cried because the locally owned places did not re-build, instead they put up a McDonalds, pretty hard to rob or steal from them. Why would you destroy your own "hood" and then have to take a bus to the store? Intelligence I guess.

It seems to me that if you give any people free housing, free food, cell phones and cash each month of their lives because they have gotten it by complaining they are poor,why or where would they scrape up any incentive to work when their parents and grandparents lived that way? My husband and I are older now, and have lost our health care due to loss of jobs, we are living on his soc. sec at the moment with no help from anyone. We have always worked and have 4 children who all work and privide for their children, when money is tight,, they make do with less, like we did. Now my husband and I live in an appartment for the time being and the 2 families that live accross the side walk from us (within ear shot) recieve food stamps, rent, free bus passes, cell phones, utilities and a monthly cash amount. One of the couples have one child, they get 600 bucks a month in food stamps alone, my husband was in the store the other day at the same time that neighbor was, he purchased 5 fresh salmon fillets at 38 bucks each and three live lobsters and when he got to the checkout, he took cash from his welfare card and paid for his 12 pack of beer. Now mind you this man works every day as a heating cooling repair man and has another child by another woman that he does not pay support for.

The other couple consists of 3 children, 1 under 4 yrs, and two teens, one with a mental illness. They collect over 600 bucks a month for her, their rent is paid, over 700 bucks amonth in stamps and cash too. They go to all the local food banks and throw out everything except what the kids want to keep. the wife never cooks and will be proud to tell you she doesn't. They only buy pop and snack foods with their food stamps because they eat out three times a day using her husbands wages (he also works full time and over time) and the cash from the welfair card,,, oh, and the welfair card also pays for her 3 GALLONS of vodca a month.. this story is true, I know these people. Now tell me why no commity has been appointed to keep track of what these people spend their, or our money on? Couldn't some big computor company come up with a program that would only let those welfair cards be used on basic food (HEALTHY!!!!) items? because as it sits now, the cash can be pulled off the card and used for anything, that is rediculas! And from what people have told us,,, this is the "norm" for the poor poverty stricken people in this country. And by the way, I am a white woman married to a white man,,, and these neighbors are white and hispanic, so the needy poverty group comes in what ever colors can get their hands on into welfair. And Mrs. Obama wants to put stores in the inner city where they would be forced to close within 2 years due to theft? This whole country has gone to hell in a hand basket. If it werent for the fact that for some reason beyond my understanding I still love my country, I would think seriously about leaving it before the real deppression hit, and it is coming, don't fool yourselves because when that happens, you'll have to fight to keep a tent on a lawn!