The full Drilldown provides never-before-released data and tables detailing the Food Desert population, as well as maps featuring community names, street identifiers, and aldermanic ward numbers. It also includes SNAP redemption figures and a message from Mari Gallagher that addresses the need to enforce current SNAP standards and raise them in the next Farm Bill. You might find a few surprises. But the SNAP Addendum goes farther. Its purpose is to help Chicago residents identify retail stores that are authorized to accept federal food assistance money, and to determine whether these vendors are — or are not — providing sufficient healthful food options to their customers. It lists SNAP retailers within a half-mile radius of 15 high-profile locations around Chicago including the homes of President Barack Obama and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the district offices of U.S. Representative Bobby Rush and State Senator Jacqueline Collins. It also discusses how responsibility for problems with SNAP does not simply fall on the shoulders of USDA officials, whose resources to monitor the program have dwindled, and who must enforce compliance rules set by Congress that impose questionable nutritional standards. There is also an update of the aggressive campaign led by Yum! Brands (which owns KFC and Taco Bell) to enter the SNAP program and why it was defeated. The theme of the Addendum is “democratization of data” and the ability of communities to inventory and assess their own local food environments.

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