I took a look today at why grocery stores in the center of D.C. are so often overcrowded, but it's impossible to dig into this topic without recognizing just how many of the city's neighborhoods are stuck with far worse food shopping options.

Whole swaths of the District, especially in lower-income neighborhoods in Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8, have little to no access to stores that sell anything even resembling healthy food, a state of affairs that is widely credited with contributing to public health concerns related to obesity and diabetes.

As noted in that earlier story, D.C. Hunger Solutions and Social Compact put out a report [PDF] on the topic of food deserts earlier this year, and D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has since taken their recommendations and converted them into legislation that the council is expected take up this fall.

Cheh’s "FEED DC" act, co-introduced in July along with David Catania (I-At-large), Kwame Brown (D-At-large) and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), attempts to address the problem of food deserts by establishing a new program out of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. Headed by a "grocery ambassador" who would work out of DMPED, the program would attempt to lure new grocery stores to underserved areas by offering some combination of grants, loans, tax credits and other financial assistance, so long as the retailers agree to sell fresh produce, employ a certain number of D.C. residents, and accept federal SNAP and WIC benefits.

"The uneven distribution of full-service grocery stores creates a substantial gap in access to groceries," reads the report. "Closing the grocery gap in Washington, D.C., is critical to the nutrition, health, and economic security of low-income households in the District, as well as that of the city at large."

The bill additionally proposes a second-tier of development assistance for "healthy corner stores," defined as businesses of under 5,000 square feet that would agree to the same terms: Sell fruits and veggies and accept food stamps. In exchange, new such small businesses would be able to take advantage of the same proposed financial assistance program, as would existing corner stores be able to seek help to expand or renovate in order to meet the requirements.

Should Cheh's plan, which is inspired in large part by similar programs that have been enacted in Philadelphia and New York, prove successful, it could theoretically lead to more stores of all shapes and sizes that sell food to the citizens of the District. That alone could help alleviate some of the crowding issues at existing supermarkets, not to mention address the serious issue of a lack of access to healthy food in a number of our communities.

"The whole idea is to create this sort of umbrella, to figure out how best we can expand grocery options across the city," says Cheh.