Located in the heart of mid-city Los Angeles, Pico-Union is one of the most highly diverse portions of the city, densely filled with vibrant cultures. The racial demographic makes this area a majority-minority community. Sadly, the food options do not supplement the multicultural array of the people.
Within the Pico-Union district, liquor stores and fast food restaurants flourish. In fact, the amount of liquor stores and fast food outlets more than quadruple the healthy markets and grocery stores. Sadly, that is a statistic that can be seen throughout many urban areas, otherwise making these areas known as a food deserts. Pico-Union is considered a food desert because people in this area lack access to foods that would contribute to maintaining a healthy diet.
Food is a resource that some communities take for granted. Research shows that consistent poor food choices, can result in health problems, including diabetes and obesity, leading to the possibility an increasing drop-off rate, or decrease in population, in communities. Though that statistic doesn’t determine the cause whether people move or not, an increased drop off rate over-time is not something that any neighborhood welcomes.
Although Southern California is seeing a decrease in its obesity rate, the two slowest declining groups are African-Americans and Latinos—the two most populous races in the Pico-Union district. That’s why one business took matters into its on hands and set its stakes just north of Interstate 10.
With Love Market and Café just opened six months ago, and is taking on a big task of helping the community reach its full potential. The owners want to bring cultures together at this local market and develop community knowledge when it comes to food consumption.
Founder Andrew McDowell knows that With Love Market and Café is only a piece of the puzzle, but at least it’s a start. He said, “I want to use this business as a tool to get our community thinking about what roles they can play in the long-term success of this community”. The 3,000 square foot market and cafe was once home to warehouse space, but now that industrial-nature is just a form of charming décor in south-central Los Angeles.
McDowell knows that due to gentrification his community is constantly shifting, but as any business owner would, he wants With Love to stay steady amongst the changes. He said, “We want to be a welcoming space in where folks who have been here for 50 years and folks who have been here for 50 days can meet each other and get to know each other as good people and build relationships. I think that mixed communities specifically socioeconomically bring benefits to everyone in that community, a healthy diversity is always good.”
With Love holds class sessions multiple times a week to help foster this sense of community. Some classes include different and healthier ways of cooking varieties of cuisines native to each household and yoga sessions to promote a healthy lifestyle. McDowell is trying to transform his community from the inside out.
His team notes that it’s not necessarily that his neighbors are going hungry, they just might not be making good decisions when choosing what to eat. When it comes to accessibility and what is readily available many factors come into play. There is a correlation of food deserts to the economically disadvantaged as well as lack of healthcare options. All three of these things can go hand in hand.
He said, “the common definition of a food dessert is when you have to travel more than a mile, but when you do that and you have perishables, if you have to travel more than one mile or make more than one connection your food will go bad, so you have to get things with more preservatives. It’s not the people’s fault, and the government had no urgency in making a change, so I took responsibility for my community.”
As a resident of Pico-Union for the past ten years, McDowell is here to stay to make the changes that he sees fit to combat the food desert and unhealthy habits of the inner-city. He urges others in the community to invest in their futures and support businesses like his.
Learn more about With Love Market and Café by visiting their website.