White House celebrates Ambridge store's push for produce
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First lady Michelle Obama, right, greets Josephine Grossi, the produce manager of Shop 'N Save in Ambridge, during Wednesday's event on healthy food at the White House.
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WASHINGTON
The Ambridge Shop 'N Save quadrupled the size of its produce section two years ago thanks to a state grant, and produce manager Josephine Grossi noticed a substantial difference.
"It translates to our customers leaving our store with a healthy cart of groceries," Mrs. Grossi told a crowd Wednesday in the East Room of the White House.
Mrs. Grossi was there to introduce first lady Michelle Obama, who announced a public-private partnership, featuring Shop 'N Save parent company Supervalu, Walmart, Walgreens and other companies, to attack the nation's "food deserts."
All told, the companies committed to open or expand 1,500 stores in underserved urban and rural communities to give 9.5 million customers access to fresh produce.
"If a parent wants to pack a piece of fruit in a child's lunch, if a parent wants to add some lettuce for a salad at dinner, they shouldn't have to take three city buses or pay some expensive taxi to go to another community to make that possible," said Mrs. Obama, who launched the healthy foods initiative in Philadelphia last year as part of her campaign against child obesity.
According to a 2009 Department of Agriculture study, 23.5 million people live in food deserts -- defined as low-income areas more than a mile from a grocery store -- and the initiative announced Wednesday is designed to reach 40 percent of them.
Mrs. Obama touted the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, a $120 million grant and loan program that has funded 88 projects across the state, including the Shop 'N Save in Ambridge. The first lady also wished Mrs. Grossi a happy 70th birthday and gave her a jar of honey from the White House garden as a present.
The federal program was initially announced last year as a $400 million combination of grants and loans, but Congress tightened the appropriations leash this year and only $35 million was approved for 2011.
The healthy foods program pools grants from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a Treasury Department tax credit program.
The administration has requested $330 million in its 2012 budget for the program, but House Republicans remain eager to slash agency funding as part of a strategy to pare down the nation's $14.3 trillion debt.
The administration is trying to use the business commitments to show that the federal dollars will beget more private investment, as well as create jobs -- a crucial selling point in a down economy.
First Published July 21, 2011 12:00 am
