The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Food Desert in Chicago

Feb 14, 2022

This past October, residents in Chicago’s West Garfield Park decried the closure of ALDI, which was one of the neighborhood’s last supermarkets with healthy, affordable food options. The billion-dollar company said that they had to close because of “consistently declining sales and the fact that we’ve operated this location at a loss for several years.” Surprise, surprise….

Earlier this month, the Save-A-Lot in the same working-class neighborhood temporarily closed down after failing a health inspection. It’s bad enough that the owners of this location never addressed its mounting health hazards, even after failing FIVE food inspections in 2021 alone!

Now there is not a single operating grocery store in West Garfield Park. Sadly, food deserts like this can be found in low-income areas throughout the country. It’s striking how something as basic as access to a reliable supermarket can be taken away from the population for the sake of profit.