A food desert in the Desert Southwest
Seeley has one grocery store
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Food deserts are defined as places that have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables here in Seeley this is the only market in town.
Seeley is a city 7 miles outside of El Centro, with no physical address.
One store employee says that ever since the pandemic they are no longer able to restock fruits and vegetables
“We always had enough saved if that makes sense we had enough to put back on the shelves if we ran out on the shelves but now it's more like umm if we run out of it on the shelves and we don’t have anything in the back we can’t call anyone to bring us more supplies as soon as they can,” Julia Perez, Employee.
In Imperial County, 23.8% live below the poverty line, a number that is higher than the national average of 13.1%.
A study by John Hopkins University shows food deserts are directly linked to poverty and are more abundant in communities of color.
The pandemic has made groceries even more scarce in poorer communities.
“The company that brings our meat decided to like also do that on us where it’s like we can’t get as much meat at all so then they decided that umm we would buy in bulk so we decided to get every other day and then at that point we don’t have a limit cause we would have enough and so then we decided to put everything back up on the shelves so sometimes our prices up and down,” said Perez.
The employees at the supermarket say they know how important their service is to this community.
“You know it really is a privilege being able to serve this community we’ve been here many years, we really have to have faith in the community supporting us because they have faith in us and we’re really happy serving them,” said Juan Ramirez, Manager.
The Imperial Valley Food Bank delivers food to Seeley residents once a month and they say the number of people needing food has increased significantly. Prior to the pandemic, they served 75 families now they deliver food to 150 families.
