Charles Gustas
Professor Melissa Santos
EN 102-055
Blog post
Final draft
This week we read more into the nationwide problem of food deserts. As we examined more of the qualifying factors, I realized that I too live in a food desert of sorts. I live in the town of West Bridgewater, a small backwater between Brockton and Bridgewater. There are two different supermarkets in the town, however my house is at least two and a half miles from both of them, and by definition a food desert is when a supermarket is more than a mile from where you live. There also isn’t any real way to get to the stores without a car, you could walked to them if you lived nearby, but that’s a relatively small number of people. West Bridgewater also doesn't have a public transportation system. The council of aging owns a small bus, but I never see it driving around. The two supermarkets in my town are Market Basket, and Trucchi's. Market basket is by far the most popular, mainly due to their significantly lower prices. Trucchi's lost its popularity after Market Basket opened a few years ago, however the majority of the foods they sell, especially the meat and produce are of a higher quality. Other than that there are about a half dozen pizza joints and a few quicky marts, so not a lot of diversity. The one thing that West Bridgewater has going for it is the number of farms in the town. There are three farms in the town, and each of them supply food to local supermarkets, like the Trucchi's in town. If I did not have access to a car, my food choices in town would be extremely limited. For this reason I personally believe that there should be some changes made in my town to provide for those who don’t drive to try and alleviate the food desert problem.
One of the classmates had asked me to fill out a survey about the perception of public transportation in Massachusetts which I view as an essential aspect to Boston. I had explained to him that the MBTA is very important part of preventing food deserts. I grew up in a hometown opposite of West Bridgewater. There is a supermarket located close to my high school and another one within a 15 minutes commute if I was walking. With that being said, I was intriguing to hear your point of view about the supermarkets around here in Bridgewater. Before coming to BSU, I had never even been to Walmart or Market Basket before or been on a farm before so its even more interesting that the 3 farms in town supply food to Truchhi's. Many people complain that there is not to much to do in this area, but I disagree because we have the access to the train on campus which many people underestimate.
ReplyDeleteI think you are very right. I think that this problem should be fixed. Luckly that you have a car and you live some what close to the super market. But this problem is for the people who do not have a car and they live in a town with no public transportation to the grocery store. I think the government should have an affect on this. They could change so much. They could make a demand for oublic transportation. Or a grocery store beign put in to the food desert.
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