Diversity & Inclusion
Delivery / Food and drink / Municipal government

Baltimore’s Virtual Supermarket program expands to 14th location

Over the last couple years, the city and Klein's Family Markets doubled the number of sites offering online grocery ordering in areas that lack healthy food options.

Lisa Jones, left, with her groceries, talks to neighborhood food advocate Robert Singletary in 2014. (Photo by Stephen Babcock)

Since a new location opening we covered in 2015, a Baltimore program doubled the number of locations offering online grocery ordering in areas that lack supermarkets or healthy food offerings.
On Monday morning, Baltimore City Health Commissioner Leana Wen passed out groceries to mark the opening of the 14th location of Virtual Supermarket at the Ruscombe Gardens, a low-income senior housing facility in the Cylburn neighborhood of northwest Baltimore.
It’s the latest facility offering seniors the option of ordering groceries. The groceries are delivered to the complex, where residents can pick them up.
Launched in 2014, the Virtual Supermarket program is a partnership between the city’s health department and Klein’s Family Markets, which owns ShopRite.


According to a new study released earlier this year by the health department and Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future, 23.5 percent of Baltimoreans live in areas that lack affordable, healthy food options from grocery stores and other spots. Additionally, researchers said the community advocated rebranding the areas from food deserts to “healthy food priority areas.” In Baltimore, nearly 18,000 seniors live in these areas.
When it launched, officials said the Virtual Supermarket program was the first to accept EBT/food stamps for online grocery ordering. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has since launched a pilot that expanded the option to ShopRite and Safeway locations.

Engagement

Join the conversation!

Find news, events, jobs and people who share your interests on Technical.ly's open community Slack

Trending

How venture capital is changing, and why it matters

What company leaders need to know about the CTA and required reporting

Why the DOJ chose New Jersey for the Apple antitrust lawsuit

A veteran ship's officer describes how captains work with harbor pilots to avoid deadly collisions

Technically Media