Why is it that healthy foods never make it to poor urban neighborhoods? Ask any low-income neighborhood resident about buying fresh vegetables and you will learn that the cost and availability are prohibitive. Hard to find and extremely expensive when you do. And so, the fast food chains (love drive thru keypad http://ideastox.com/drive-thrukeypadmenu), are most often the only convenient and affordable choices. I have nothing against a Big Mac every once and a while but I even more passionately believe that any money saved by lower rents, not offset by higher insurance, should be allocated to bringing fresh foods, organic foods, local foods to low-income neighborhoods. If Whole Foods, with Wild Oats merger behind it, could establish a sister brand that would cater to these neighborhoods, it could be a very successful business. People with less disposable income still want to be healthy, and it is that much less money they will ultimately have to spend on health care and our health care system will have to support. This idea is therefore two-fold: A bold business move by an established brand (doesn't have to be Whole Foods) and a government subsidy for companies that take up this challenge, to offset initial start up costs and pay back in multiples what is saved to health care.

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