As the holiday season approaches and many focus on Thanksgiving feasts, a significant number of families in North Texas find themselves facing the daunting challenge of putting food on the table. Nonprofits are sounding the alarm about the ongoing food desert crisis that plagues parts of DFW. City data reveals that over 36% of Dallas residents live in these food deserts, where access to grocery stores and healthy foods at affordable prices is extremely limited. According to the USDA, grocery stores are scarce in these areas, and residents often have to travel long distances on foot or by car to obtain fresh produce and other healthy food items in a supermarket or large grocery store.

United Way's Southern Dallas Thrives Initiative

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, through its Southern Dallas Thrives initiative, has been stepping in to fill the gaps. Since 2018, in partnership with the PepsiCo Foundation and Frito-Lay North America, the initiative has been collaborating with a network of churches and organizations. This collaborative effort aims to enhance education outcomes for youth, provide nutritious meals for families, and offer a wide range of supportive services for working families. Ashley Douglas, Vice President of Community Impact for United Way of Metro Dallas, emphasizes the importance of ensuring accessibility to nutritious foods. "Not having access to nutritious foods and food items of choice has been a significant part of the issue. Ensuring that families and individuals within the sector have access to these items is crucial in our focus within Southern Dallas Thrives," she says.During this Thanksgiving weekend, the United Way distributed over 1,100 families with a 60-pound holiday food box to help them prepare for the holiday. However, it comes at a difficult time as two Save A Lot grocery stores closed earlier this year after only two years of re-opening under new ownership. This closure was a major setback for the already vulnerable population in Southern Dallas.A silver lining was the opening of HEB's discount grocery store Joe V's in the summer off Wheatland Road.Over the years, the city of Dallas has attempted to attract more grocery stores to the area through cash offer initiatives, but the development has been slow. NBC 5 reached out to the city to request details on any new opportunities for grocery or retail development in Southern Dallas and is awaiting a response.The continued stagnation in getting new development into the area is placing more pressure on nonprofits to meet the needs of the community. "While we work to fill some of these gaps, we recognize that sustainability-wise, this is not the ultimate solution. It will take a collective effort from various sectors to truly address this issue," says Douglas. "This issue was not created by a single sector in isolation, and it won't be solved by a single sector either."For now, families have to travel further to find non-fast food options, which often become the fallback in food deserts and can have long-term health effects on the community. "Southern Dallas unfortunately has a 20-year shorter lifespan in terms of health outcomes compared to northern counterparts. This has led us to explore innovative ways to address food accessibility and the availability of food. Under the Southern Dallas Thrives initiative, we have been able to work with local nonprofits to address some of these gaps," says Douglas.

Ruthie's For Good - A Gourmet Food Truck with a Permanent Cafe

Ruthie's For Good is one nonprofit working to fill the gaps. It is opening a permanent cafe in South Dallas on the 1600 block of Martin Luther King Boulevard. The cafe will support St. Philip's School and Community Center, with all proceeds directly contributing to the work being done in the South Dallas community. An opening date is approaching in early 2025.Ruthie's also provides second chances by hiring individuals affected by the legal system and helping them reintegrate into society as a fresh start employer.

Community Markets - Empowering the Masses

Another innovative approach in South Dallas is the concept of community markets. Empowering the Masses on Samuell Boulevard is a prime example. Each week, the community market offers struggling families free food to help offset costs while maintaining their dignity. Executive director Tammy Johnson explains, "We know there's a negative connotation attached to the word 'food pantry' when you feel like you can't feed your family and have to ask for help. Our market mimics a typical grocery store with aisles of fresh produce, meat, and healthy foods. Families can pick out the food they need and have it bagged up like a traditional grocery experience. This way, when they go home, they don't have to explain to their children about food insecurity."Empowering the Masses started as a food pantry in a South Dallas church and received support from Southern Dallas Thrives to open a permanent location in 2023. Johnson draws from her own experience to run the market. "My sisters and I grew up in poverty. My mom couldn't always feed us regularly, so we visited food pantries, and it wasn't always a pleasant experience. A lot of our clients are women-led households and minority-led households. Moms with multiple children trying to make ends meet and decide between paying rent, light bills, or providing groceries for their families."Another component of the market are shopping ambassadors, which Johnson believes is a key part in helping solve the 'why' of food insecurity. They assist in funneling many clients into career training programs to lift families out of food insecurity. Vendors come in twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday to offer social, health, and educational services. "We call them shopping ambassadors because we want people to know that we're here to walk hand in hand with them to address their issues and form a relationship to get to the root cause of food insecurity," says Johnson.The market is located in the middle of a food desert that is mostly occupied by liquor stores. Johnson hopes to change this. "We're strategic as this used to be an old liquor store. Addressing the social determinants of health is crucial, and the lack of access to healthy quality foods is one of the factors affecting our neighborhood's health. We need to ensure that whatever we bring to the community is accessible to our neighbors. We serve about 500 families each week, and there's always a high demand."Johnson believes there is a lack of connection between retailers and the community and hopes to see more conversations in the future to bring about real change. "We need to understand both sides - what the community needs and what retailers need to be successful. It will take more conversations from both sides to create a sustainable path forward," she says.Empowering the Masses is gearing up for a massive Thanksgiving distribution but is short about 250 turkeys. Click here for more details on how to help.