With no supermarket for residents of Atlantic City, New Jersey and hospitals create mobile groceries
Five billion dollars worth of gambling gets done each year in Atlantic City
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — In this seaside resort, where $5 billion worth of in-person and online gambling gets done each year, there still is not a supermarket.
People who live in Atlantic City must either drive off the island to a mainland store, take public transportation — whose cost eats away at the amount left for food — or shop in pricey, poorly stocked corner stores in their own city.
A much-touted, heavily subsidized plan to build what would be the city’s first supermarket in nearly 20 years fell apart earlier this year. Now, the state and a hospital system are sending a converted school bus laden with fresh food available for purchase into the city as a temporary solution.
Virtua Health brought a modified transit bus to a poor neighborhood in Atlantic City on Friday as part of its “Eat Well” program, funded by the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.
The program aims to bring high quality food and fresh produce to economically deprived areas that lack meaningful access to healthy food. Atlantic City is second on the list of 50 New Jersey communities designed as “food deserts” due to lack of access to such food.
Delorese Butley-Whaley, 62, was delighted to board the bus to buy a half gallon of milk and a loaf of bread for a total of $3.
She usually walks 30 to 45 minutes to a local corner food store, straining her bad knees, or takes the bus there in bad weather. Sometimes she ventures to a full-fledged supermarket on the mainland in Absecon, a $10 cab ride in each direction. That quickly eats into her food budget.
“We don't have a real supermarket here,” she said. “This is something we all need. I love this. It's really convenient. I
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