Would you speak into the mic. You have a soft voice and we want to hear you.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair. My name is Lilly Cobbs, and I serve as the 139 4/19/02 HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - RES. 020133 coordinator of the food program at the People's Baptist Church, located at 5039 Baltimore Avenue. I have served in this capacity since 1992. Since the tragic events of September the 11th, 2001, the number of people that we serve has increased significantly. I would like to address at least two issues leading to the surge of supermarket closing. The closing of supermarkets in our significantly populated neighborhoods has caused people to drive or pay someone to take them grocery-shopping. They travel a long distance, which limits their ability to store food. This has led to increased usage of convenient stores, resulting in higher costs for food and less nutrition for those on special diets. Income and diet-related death. Besides paying the necessary rents and utility bills for day-to-day survival, what little monies are left for medication and life's essentials leave little left to spend on food that need to be consumed for special diet, and this is becoming an eventual leading cause of many deaths. And some of the -- what we recommend -- 140 4/19/02 HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - RES. 020133 before I say the little few things that we recommend, I do shop at the Food Bank, and the Food Bank representative that spoke, we get a lot of fresh foods, and whenever we do service, we only service once a week, but when we service them once a week, we try to have fresh foods for them to take in their bags. And when we make their bags, we try go make sure they have, like, three or four days' food. We recommend three key actions that Philadelphia and state and local governments must address this problem. First, we need to erase the gaps in the number of supermarkets between low- and high-income significant public investment; Second, economic- development agencies should convene key leaders in the supermarket industry to develop a strategy to create more supermarkets in the lower-income communities; Finally, state and local governments should create linkage programs and require supermarkets that build in higher-income communities to build new stores in lower-income neighborhoods. And in this way, it will be better 141 4/19/02 HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - RES. 020133 for all of us in our community.
Well, thank you so much for your testimony. Are there questions or comments from members of the committee? (No questions.)
Thank you. We certainly appreciate you taking time out to come to testify today. And to you, Miss Cobbs, and to all of you who have testified, it has been quite informative and inspiring. (Inaudible) and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown because we will be dealing with the issue of nutrition as well as infant mortality, which are interrelated, and we need to talk about the farmers market. Thank you all. There being no further business, this Council is -- we'll recess to the call of the Chair. That keeps the discussion open and we can come back at any time and have further discussion without having to do a formal call. Thank you very much. 142 4/19/02 HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - RES. 020133 (Proceedings end at 4:23 p.m.) - - - 143 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the foregoing proceedings of the Council of the City of Philadelphia's meeting of the Committee on Health and Human Services of Tuesday, April 19, 2002, are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. RE: Resolution No. 020133 _______________________________, Josephine Cardillo Registered Professional Reporter and Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)