City’s plan to buy shuttered Aldi site another welcome step to eliminate food deserts

A community resident walks past a sign that reads “Food is medicine. Shame on Aldi” during a grocery distribution event outside the closed Aldi at 3835 W. Madison St. in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, Saturday morning, Nov. 6, 2021. The event was held in response to the abrupt closing of the grocery store in October. On Tuesday, a City Council committee approved a plan that authorizes the city to buy the property as a way to make sure that a grocery store returns to the site.  | Pat Nabong/Sun-Times,

Buying groceries shouldn’t be an obstacle course. But it is for millions of Americans, and thousands of Chicagoans — most of them Black — who live in food deserts.

The pandemic hasn’t made things easier. People without a car have had to rely on the CTA, which, at times, scaled back on services. Senior citizens, the disabled and the chronically ill may have hesitated to take public transit altogether.