SENATOR OFFERS A BILLION DOLLARS TO BUILD NEW GROCERY STORES

A 'Food Desert' is what they like to call the state of New York.

It's a place where half of the residents in any given neighborhood must travel twice the distance to get to a grocery store than they would a fast food restaurant of liquor store.

This is important when it comes to fighting obesity and increasing the availability of fresh and healthy food.

To change this problem, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand proposed $1 billion dollars in loans and grants to build 2,100 grocery stores throughout the state of New York.

"By building new grocery stores in underserved areas across the state we can give people the opportunity to live longer, healthier lives, save billions in health care costs and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs," states Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

Low income earners and senior citizens hurt the most in this situation with a lack of grocery stores. They are the ones who find is most difficult to find healthy food because they are often unable to access it due to high prices and/or unreachable locations.

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