_edited_edited.png)
What is Food Apartheid?
The Thurgood Marshall Institute defines Food Apartheid as "a system of segregation that divides those with access to an abundance of nutritious food and those who have been denied that access due to systemic injustice."
Building Healthier Communities Through Access to Quality Food.
One community.
One partnership.
One grocery store at a time.
Our Mission
In the world's richest nation, no child, family, or senior citizen should have to travel miles outside their own communities for fresh groceries while others enjoy abundant choices just minutes from home.
Yet the USDA estimates that nearly 39 million Americans live in areas deemed food deserts where access to a full-service supermarket remains limited. These communities exist not only in urban neighborhoods, but also though out rural America and increasingly within suburban communities of color. Many researchers and advocates now refer to this challenge as food apartheid because the lack of healthy food access is often the result of decades of disinvestment and structural decisions rather than mere geography.
At The Carl Sherman Group, we believe that a community's health and economic future are directly connected to its access to quality food. Healthy communities require healthy choices, and every family deserves the dignity of shopping at quality grocery stores that offer fresh, nutritious, and affordable products.
Our mission is to eradicate food apartheid by creating sustainable public-private partnerships that attract premier grocery operators and deliver the same level of quality, service, and customer experience found in communities where grocery access has never been a concern.
We are intentionally sensitive in our approach. Due to increasing demand, our firm cannot accommodate every request for assistance. Instead, we employ a disciplined vetting process to ensure that each engagement has the leadership, partnership, and market conditions necessary for long-term success. Likewise, we choose to work only with grocers and operators who are willing to invest equitably in every community they serve.
Our work is about more than recruiting grocery stores. It is about restoring health, expanding opportunity, creating jobs, increasing investment, and strengthening the fabric of communities across America. Because ending food apartheid is not a destination, it is a mission that requires all of us.
​
One community. One partnership. One grocery store at a time.
That is our mission.