North Cook News

Gov. J.B. Pritzker is pushing the Illinois Grocery Initiative as part of his new state budget, which calls for a $20 million investment to fight food deserts and expand food access, WCIA reported.

“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. “But after the cameras leave, often so do the commercial chains, leaving poor rural and urban communities high and dry."

In addition to using the $20 million in funding to open more stores in hard-pressed areas and underserved communities, the governor also wants at least $2 million to go to buying produce from local farmers as part of a spread-the-wealth approach.

Local co-op workers at Mount Pulaski’s Market on the Hill say without their supermarket, their area would be a food desert, with general manager Lorenne Wilhem adding,  "There’s a lot of people here in town who are elderly or they can’t get out of town. 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.”

As part of his State of the State address, Pritzker earlier this month unveiled a $49.6 billion spending plan that includes a major boost to education funding in the state — including a $250 million investment in early education and a $506 million increase in K-12 funding, The Chicago Sun-Times reported.