This August, our Healthy Corners program marks 13 years of delivering fresh and healthy fruits and vegetables to corner stores in underserved neighborhoods throughout Washington, DC. In the last 12 months, we sold a record 421,198 units of our healthy, affordable products. We recorded our single highest week of sales in the program’s history in July 2024, selling 11,813 units in just seven days.
The Healthy Corners program began in 2011 because we knew there was demand for healthy food in the segments of DC often referred to as ‘food deserts,’ but there weren’t enough retailers equipped to meet it with the freshness, variety, and prices that made healthy food work for everyone.
Fast forward to today and the challenge of inequitable access to healthy food might seem as intractable as ever, but there is progress! Today, there are 58 corner stores participating in the Healthy Corners program, 31 of which offer our innovative SNAP Match nutrition incentives, giving low-income customers additional buying power when they choose healthier options. Our team continues to work with corner store owners and other potential partners to identify opportunities and implement solutions to expand access to healthy food options.
The continued challenges that too many communities face in successful opening new grocery stores and healthy food retailers underscore the very impulse that inspired Healthy Corners in the first place: we knew we couldn’t wait for tax incentives, outside investment, or a high-priced new development project to “solve” this problem for our city. We had to take a thoughtful look at the assets that already existed—small corner stores, local farmers, residents of all backgrounds and income levels, and the skills of our culinary graduates—and arrange them, urgently, in ways that offered win/win scenarios and strengthened community trust. Not everyone believed in our approach at the time, but today Healthy Corners is an award-winning national model backed by local and federal policymakers, leading academic researchers, and most importantly, our neighbors.
The D.C. Hunger Solutions report “Closing the Grocery Store Gap in the Nation’s Capital” offers several recommendations on getting healthy and affordable food to all parts of the city. Our Healthy Corners program directly addresses three of the reports’ suggestions: we work with stores to expand benefits, stock healthy food in existing corner stores, and develop sustainable solutions that meet the needs of our community. Saving opening a grocery store, the Healthy Corners program is delivering on every suggestion in the report.
Our commitment to engaging local assets to provide just what our city needs is paying off for small businesses and customers alike—and as the program continues to grow beyond its 58 current stores, we’re excited to push Healthy Corners to new heights in the year ahead.
For a real time inventory of the fresh fruits and vegetables offered at each of the Healthy Corners locations, peruse the incredibly useful Healthy Corners app. In addition to helping you find the store nearest you, you’ll also be able to see what produce was recently delivered, if the store accepts SNAP and/or EBT, offers a SNAP Match, and maybe most importantly, how much each piece of produce costs. Finally, if you are not sure what to make with that produce, there are dozens of healthy recipe suggestions in the app too!
Visit dccentralkitchen.org/healthy-corners to find the map of participating Healthy Corners stores and learn more about this innovative healthy food access solutions, 13 years in the making!