So spake Mike Myers’ Scottish father character in So I Married an Axe Murderer back in the ’90s. I’ve not forgotten.
AdRants has capriciously labeled the forthcoming KFC pothole-filling campaign in major cities across the nation “Community Service-Savvy”. I like Angela’s writing, though, and am going to chalk this one up (forgive the pun) to tongue-in-cheek titling rather than taking it for her true impression.
Reason being, KFC’s campaign could be nothing further from community service. In my mind I refer to fast food entities as “community disservice” – right up there with large hardware stores whose employees scatter when a woman enters, pointing aimlessly toward a far aisle when finally confronted with a question – or worse, muttering, “busy with another customer; get back to ya.” Uhm, they never actually do so.
Our beloved John Kelso covered this unsettling story in yesterday’s Statesman, coming away with pretty much the same verdict as me. The impact of banning new construction of fast food restaurants in neighborhoods, such as the one we’ve followed in L.A., remains to be known – but possibly the most horrifying question is whether fast food in food deserts is better than no food at all.
In our study, Access Denied, SFC found that the food options available to residents in low-income areas was dire – one primary cause being that supermarket developers don’t want to invest in building a nice, new store in areas less likely to be filled with customers able to spend there.
Residents in some zip codes in Austin are left with “food stores” focused on alcohol and tobacco, frequently devoid of food products amounting to what the USDA (!) would consider a complete, well balanced meal.
What fast food companies do is prey upon communities lacking the access to healthy, affordable, whole food – and sell the illusion of choice and the lie of “nourish your family for a dollar!” The underserved are not experiencing epic levels of obesity and diet-related disease because they’re ignorant, or unaware of their bodies’ needs for fruit and vegetables. They’re suffering because the U.S. operates an industrial food system which has robbed its people of wholesome food since Earl Butz was Nixon’s secretary of ag and head of USDA.
