The Mountain Xpress has a long feature that doesn’t get boring. It tells of Asheville’s food deserts, where people with only food stamps have to walk half an hour or so to get nutritious food. The origins of the situation are blamed on urban renewal, where, according to one expert, minorities were shipped out of their historic community so the city could furnish first-world sewer and water infrastructure. The people were put in temporary public housing, but then the hospital came along and the housing became permanent.
Years later, there are no health food stores supplying people in three of Asheville’s most notorious public housing projects. The story is told of Da Candy Bus that used to drive around bringing the middle class’ four food groups (high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oils, chocolate, and salt) to public housing. The proprietor got busted more than once for selling drugs, claiming he had to serve everybody.
One lady blew up when she saw a Brillo pad and a crack pipe on the bus as she searched for some candy in a rare, rare, rare indulgent moment.
“And I said, ‘There’s children that come up on this bus!’ I looked at him and I said, ‘So you’re cool with perpetuating what has destroyed black America? You’re cool with that?'” After that experience, [Olufemi] Lewis had a mission.
Lewis is described as a “community organizer,” who, while living in public housing with her daughter, is also “a co-founder of the Food Policy Council,” “a graduate of Just Economic’s [I’ll assume that isn’t a sic.] Voices program for community organizing,” “a former public relations coordinator for Blue Ridge Biofuels,” and “founder of Ujamaa Freedom Market.”
Having met the bureaucratic requirements, Lewis is now working on overcoming the challenges of building a customer base. But a criminal record and a current warrant are forcing her into more conventional employment offerings.
