May 14, 2022, was not only the day our country experienced a deplorable act of racial terror, but it also served as a stark reminder that millions of Americans lack access to healthy and affordable food.
Nineteen-year-old Payton Gendron drove over 200 miles from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo, New York, targeting the only supermarket in the predominantly African American community—a place one neighbor called the “village watering hole.” Gendron’s actions resulted in 10 deaths and 3 injuries. However, equally concerning was the role that geography and food deserts played in this tragic moment in American urban life.
In this episode, we’ll examine the impact that limited access to healthy and affordable food has on neighborhoods. We’ll explore how, for many, if it isn’t the gun in the hands of those threatened by racial difference, it’s the design of urban spaces that slowly lead to their erasure.
“This Great and Complicated Place” is a production of Christianity Today Media and supported in part by Stand Together Trust and The Fetzer Institute.
Executive Producers: Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper
Host: Rich Pérez and John Onwuchekwa
Producer: Rich Pérez and John Onwuchekwa
Director of Operations for CT Media: Matt Stevens
Video producer: Rich Pérez
