On Tuesday, North Seattle realized that the Fred Meyer on Lake Metropolis Means Northeast at Northeast a hundred and thirtieth Avenue is slated for closure by its mother or father firm, Kroger.
At first look, this may increasingly seem like simply one other enterprise resolution in a shifting retail panorama. However for these of us on the entrance strains of human providers, and for the 1000’s of Seattle residents we function one of many solely meals banks open on Saturdays, this closure isn’t just inconvenient. It’s catastrophic.
Chances are you’ll marvel why a meals financial institution is worried in regards to the closure of a grocery retailer. North Helpline serves over 13,600 distinctive people yearly at two meals banks in North Seattle’s Lake Metropolis and Bitter Lake neighborhoods. We work each day to assist people dealing with meals insecurity, seniors dwelling on mounted incomes and dealing dad and mom making an attempt to offer nutritious meals on restricted budgets. When our neighbors go to us, they steadily cease into the Fred Meyer to choose up extra staples that we have been unable to offer that day. The closure of the Lake Metropolis Fred Meyer threatens to make all of this more durable.
As soon as this retailer closes, there’ll not be a full-service grocery retailer inside strolling distance or an affordable bus experience for a lot of residents of our neighborhood. This may have an effect on households with out entry to a car and people whose money and time are already stretched skinny. The closure will successfully rework Lake Metropolis right into a meals desert, a time period utilized by the U.S. Division of Agriculture to explain areas with restricted entry to inexpensive and nutritious meals.
The implications aren’t summary. When recent fruits, greens, lean meats and dairy are not accessible, households are pressured to depend on comfort shops or fast-food choices. These are sometimes greater in sodium, sugar and fats, contributing to an increase in continual circumstances resembling diabetes, hypertension and weight problems, circumstances we already see far too steadily in our shopper base. Past bodily well being impacts, a 2024 University of Washington study discovered that stress, nervousness and despair have been extra frequent amongst food-insecure households, with 84% of such households reporting excessive stress.
The closure of the Lake Metropolis Fred Meyer represents way over the lack of a grocery retailer. It would deepen inequities and create lasting hurt by leaving households with out entry to recent meals and family necessities, and by eliminating one of many final remaining pharmacies within the neighborhood. As a neighborhood service supplier, we see firsthand how fragile entry to fundamental requirements will be for our neighbors. With out this anchor retailer, the well-being of 1000’s of residents shall be in jeopardy.
