Shopping in Madison's Food Desert
In Madison’s Allied Drive neighborhood, a low-income pocket in the Beltline-Verona Road corridor, pickings are slim when it comes to grocery shopping. After a Cub Foods store closed, residents are left with just a McDonald’s and a Mobil gas station mart for quick-access food.
That’s why neighborhood activists like Cassandra Sonko and Sina Davis, along with other members of the Allied Community Cooperative, are pushing to bring a new grocery store to the Allied Drive area. (See BRAVA’s story on Sonko and Davis in the August edition, p. 18)
Because of the few choices for shopping, residents are left without fresh, healthful and affordable food choices.
As an example, here is a list of staples from the Mobil mart that a family might buy to get by, compared to the same products at a Copps grocery store.
| Allied Drive Mobil | Copps Grocery | ||||
| Loaf of Bread (Butternut large) | $2.99 | $2.49 | |||
| Gallon of Milk (Kemp’s 2%) | $3.49 | $2.99 | |||
| 1 dozen eggs | $3.49 | $1.29 | |||
| Box of cereal (Frosted Flakes) | $6.29 | $3.69 | |||
| Jar of peanut butter (Skippy reduced fat) | $4.49 | $2.89 | |||
| Jar of jam (Smucker’s strawberry squeezable) | $3.69 | $2.69 | |||
| Bag of chips (Jay’s BBQ) | $2.00 | $4.29 | |||
| Yogurt cup (Chobani blueberry) | $1.89 | $1.19 |
