Baltimore expands 'Virtual Supermarket Program' to better serve food deserts

BALTIMORE, Md. — In an effort to increase food access to neighborhoods designated as food deserts, Baltimore has expanded its Virtual Supermarket Program to two additional communities: Perkins Homes and Wayland Village Senior Apartments.



“This expansion is about making life better for too many Baltimore City families who lack easy access to groceries, more than 30,000 of which are our children,” said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “That is absolutely unacceptable to me. In partnership with our community and business partners, we are taking action to help residents in some of our most challenged neighborhoods access healthy foods to feed their families.”



Rawlings-Blake and interim health commissioner Jacquelyn Duval-Harvey joined representatives from Klein’s Family Markets and ShopRite of Howard Park, as well as members of the community, to announce the expansion of the Virtual Supermarket Program, which provides online ordering and delivery options.
 


Approximately 20% of Baltimore City residents live in food deserts, which are defined as areas where the distance to a supermarket exceeds a fourth of a mile, where the median household income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level, and over 40% of households lack access to a vehicle.
 


The Virtual Supermarket Program — the flagship component of Baltimarket, the Baltimore City Health Department’s suite of community-based food access and food justice programs — enables residents to place grocery orders online, and offers free delivery to designated community sites. Residents can pay for groceries using cash, credit, debit, or EBT/SNAP. Baltimore’s Virtual Supermarket is the first community-based program in the country to accept EBT/SNAP for online grocery ordering and delivery.
 


Through this expansion, neighborhood food advocates will be available to assist residents with online ordering at Power House Community Center at Perkins Homes and at Wayland Village Senior Apartments. 
  


ShopRite of Howard Park will deliver groceries orders to Power House on Tuesday afternoons and to Wayland Village on Wednesday mornings.
 


The expansion to these locations marks the third and fourth Virtual Supermarket Program sites in Baltimore; and ShopRite of Howard Park is the second ShopRite store to partner with the Baltimore City Health Department to offer the Virtual Supermarket Program.




“My family and I are committed to serving the community by providing fresh food at great prices, and we are excited to extend this service to our Baltimore neighbors through the Virtual Supermarket Program,” said Marshall Klein, VP of retail operations for Klein's Family Markets, which owns and operates nine ShopRite stores in Maryland. “Customers placing online orders will receive all of ShopRite's weekly sales and traditional low prices, and each order will be hand selected by our team of personal shoppers. We are proud to join the Baltimarket program in its mission to provide fresh, healthy food to the City of Baltimore.”
 


This past summer, the Virtual Supermarket Program was re-launched in partnership with ShopRite of Glen Burnie — which is operated by Collins Family Markets — with two sites in the Cherry Hill neighborhood: Cherry Hill Senior Manor and the Cherry Hill Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.




The Virtual Supermarket is made possible through the support of United Way of Central Maryland and the Kaiser Foundation.