West Cook News

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) has included funding for a new initiative in the state's budget that aims to expand access to food and eliminate food deserts across the Prairie State.

Under Pritzker's plan, $20 million would be put toward establishing the Illinois Grocery Initiative which would help open or expand grocery stores in underserved areas. 

“The government at the state and local level has tried hard to attract big retail food chains to neighborhoods that need them with tax incentives and flashy ribbon-cutting ceremonies,” Pritzker said during his State of the State and Budget Address on Feb. 15. “But after the cameras leave, often so do the commercial chains, leaving poor rural and urban communities high and dry. It's time we return to a tried and true model — one where those communities are served by independent, local grocery stores that sell food grown by Illinois farmers."

In addition to the initial investment, an additional $2 million would be set aside for stores under the state's Grocery Initiative to purchase fresh produce from farmers in Illinois, Pritzker said during his speech. 

Employees at the Market on the Hill in Mount Pulaski said without their supermarket, the area would be a food desert. Lorenne Wilhem, the store's general manager, said a lot of the locals can't get out of town to go shopping. "This is a good source of healthy food for them and a lot of people are just grateful to have the produce options and the meat options here when you can’t get any of that anywhere else in town," Whilhem told WCIA. 

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Pritzker's $49.6 billion spending plan also includes a big funding boost to education. A proposed $250 million would be put toward early education and a $506 million increase in K-12 funding.