New commission to tackle ‘food deserts’ in EBR

Later this week, Together Baton Rouge and Mayor Kip Holden will lay out plans for a new 13-member commission they are jointly forming to address food access issues in East Baton Rouge Parish. The Food Access Policy Commission will work over the next 10 months to examine the causes of “food deserts”—that is, vast stretches of residential neighborhoods lacking nearby grocery stores; it will also determine best practices for addressing food deserts and develop a concrete set of policies and practice recommendations for the city-parish to remedy food access issues. The Food Access Commission is being funded through the Fresh Beginnings project of the Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative. Together Baton Rouge officials and the mayor will lay out further details during a news conference at 10 a.m. Thursday, to be held at Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, 9700 Scenic Hwy. Commission members will include: Southern AgCenter Vice Chancellor for Research Adell Brown Jr.; EBR Redevelopment Authority Vice President of Administration and Programs Chip Boyles; Associated Grocers Director of Business Development Clint Caldwell; Louisiana Budget Project Policy Analyst David Gray; Ed Johnson, Wal-Mart representative; Together Baton Rouge Food Access Team Co-chair Edgar Cage; BRAC Director of Economic Development Jared Smith; LSU AgCenter Dean Kenneth Koonce; Liberty Bank Vice President Leroy Watts; Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank President/CEO Mike Manning: Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church Pastor Rev. Jesse Bilberry; Pennington Biomedical Research Center Assistant Professor Stephanie Broyles; NAI/Latter & Blum Commercial Real Estate agent Ty Harvison.