‘The food need is here’: How the HUB is impacting food deserts

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – We’re following up with The HUB for Community Innovation a year since it opened its doors in the heart of Augusta.

One of the biggest issues the HUB is tackling is food insecurity. The buildings sit in the Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighborhoods, an area considered a food desert.

As defined by the United State Department of Agriculture, a food desert means people have to travel more than a mile to a grocery store for fresh food.

Having to travel on multiple buses just to gain access to fresh food used to be the reality for Harrisburg and Laney Walker neighbors. Since the HUB planted its roots a year ago, the opportunity to get fresh is now easier.

“The food need is here,” said Nandy Cordovia, Program Manager for Georgia Food for Health at Augusta Locally Grown. “The lack of grocery stores near here has taken the ability for them to shop for healthier foods for their family.”

Every week 200 to 400 people walk inside the HUB looking at the fresh food options.

“When we saw the data, we saw the need,” said Jaci Wilkerson, Associate Director of Community Projects at the Medical College of Georgia. “The data clearly stated that this community was asking for ways to access fresh, nutritious food.”

It’s a plague that weighed on the Harrisburg and Laney Walker Neighborhoods for so long: not having access to fresh food.

“The HUB is really this giant love letter to the community saying we see you, we hear you, and we’re here to help,” said Wilkerson.

The help comes in a variety of ways, like the Georgia Food for Health Program.

“They’re not just taking them home and they’re rotting on the countertop,” said Cordovia. ” They’re actually using them to feed their families.”

Since moving the program to the HUB last year, enrollment in Georgia Food for Health went from 56 to 75.

“The ultimate goal of that is to lower their numbers, whether that’s lowering their weight, lowering their agency, lowering the prescriptions that they’re on, and ideally, completely replacing their medications with fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Cordovia.

The HUB’s main goal is to be a one-stop shop.

“This is not just addressing food insecurity, we can bring somebody into this building, and address chronic illness, food insecurity, literacy, and occupational issues,” said Wilkerson.

The HUB is set to open a food pharmacy in July to allow more access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

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