Maleah Evans / Wichita Journalism Collaborative
The Wichita area comprises 44 square miles of food desert, which is defined as urban spaces that do not have easy access to fresh food and households living more than a mile away from a grocery store.
The greatest food desert areas in Wichita are located in the southeast part of Wichita and Fairmount neighborhood, which is the neighborhood next to Wichita State University, from 17th and Hillside to 13th and Oliver.
Joseph Shepard, who currently serves in the District 1 seat on the Wichita City council said while he didn’t grow up in Fairmount, he got to know the neighborhood while attending Wichita State.
“I’m familiar with the community by way of being a student,” Shepard said. While he attended the university, he served as the Student Body President and was president for former University President John Bardo’s “Enough is Enough” campaign, which was in response to the rape and murder of Letitia Davis at Fairmount park in 2014.
Negative perceptions leading to continued food desert
Shepard said that perceptions of the neighborhood being unsafe is one of the reasons it remains a food desert, which leads companies to not want to take risks on opening stores in the area.
“I think we need to just name that, and I think that we also need to name that there is a perception in neighborhoods like Fairmount that just are not true perceptions,” he said. “When I was a student I would often hear ‘don’t park your car over there (on 17th street) if you are planning to walk back to the parking lot at a certain time of night’ or ‘it’s not safe,’ during my time as student body president we did safety walks and actually found that it was probably one of the most activated and neighborly parts of the area where Wichita State is located.
“So I think when you have those perceptions, developers and folks who have the economic ability to pour into a community via a grocery store, they’re less likely to do it because they’re afraid of potential loss, be it theft, be it vandalism.”
Darryl Carrington, a Fairmount neighborhood resident and a former city council candidate, echoed Shepard in that the neighborhood is activated with people who foster community and connection.
“I did go door to door (while campaigning) and it was so awesome,” he said. “I didn’t even realize I lived amongst such wonderful neighbors until I did the door-to-door thing. Now I know, not necessarily who I’m fighting for but who I love.”
Shepard also said that population demographics will play into if a company wants to take the risk of opening a store in a certain location. Some people make arguments about the population in Fairmount not being large enough to support a grocery store, despite the student population from the university.
“Many times when people are looking at where to put grocery stores or to do any type of development they’re looking at the population within that radius and one might argue that there’s not enough households,” he said. “We did have a Walmart neighborhood grocery store during my time as a student, my former predecessor Council Member Lavonta Williams, actually advocated for that … and unfortunately, due to lack of sales, they left the area or at least that was the reason why they stated they left the area.”
Carrington said that Wichita State University “owes the community,” the opportunity to shop locally, for both community connection and lowered health risks. He talked about spending time at the grocery store talking to neighbors because that’s when people see the most of each other.
“Absent that, how do I know who to pray for, how do I know when my neighbors aren’t well,” he said. “Because that’s when we saw each other, everybody had to buy groceries at some point.
“We don’t have that (in Fairmount).”
‘Appetite to take a risk’
Shepard said a major way to combat food deserts is the “appetite to take a risk,” on communities like Fairmount.
“One of my ideas (in City Council) is doing mobile markets, where you put healthy foods, fruits and vegetables in a van, and you are paying for the infrastructure of the vehicle but you are also paying for the produce, and you’re driving around those areas, and you have a consistent cadence and schedule where you are showing up, so folks know how to get the nutrients that they need and when they can,” he said. “The other part of it is the city could invest, and while I don’t believe the city should oftentimes get in certain lanes that we have no business getting into, I do think that we could have a grocery store, not city operation but city owned grocery store, and hire a subcontractor to operate it.”
Carrington, who campaigned in the area when he ran for City Council, said that despite not remaining active in politics, he is going to continue to speak out and advocate for the Fairmount community.
“But I’m just going to be an advocate for those seniors who have to get in their car (for groceries),” he said. “And if I make enough noise, you know every squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
He said being known and outspoken in the community is one of his main reasons he continues to speak out and be an active advocate for Fairmount.
“People, when they see me, when they engage me, it’s by a horn kind of driving by me in the garden, they equate that with me,” he said. “So I’m the perfect person to be squeaking. It’s like ‘wait a minute, I gotta get in my car to go get an orange?’ That’s crazy.
“I can do anything in my neighborhood, I can educate myself, I can become employed, I can mentor, I can volunteer, I can worship … I can do anything in this community except (get) nutrients.”
Part of the ‘appetite to take a risk’ comes with political will, Shepard said, especially when education on the issue is a factor to consider and when there’s a lack of belief in the solutions.
“I think there’s a perception of ‘This worked (in other cities), but it will never work in Wichita,’ and I think that’s a culture issue, we as a city have to push ourselves to recognize our potential and to take risk, knowing that for every moment we wait, somebody is being impacted,” he said. “Someone is going and getting food from the corner store, and they’re getting unhealthy foods, which is leading to shorter lifespan and terrible health outcomes because they don’t have access to good quality nutritious food that will allow them to show up better.
“Taking a look at the root causes and being able to create innovative solutions while collaborating and partnering with the experts, I think that’s how we solve this issue.”
Healthy Corner Store Initiative
Shepard recently had the opportunity to meet with the Wichita State Community Engagement Institute, which operates the Healthy Food Store Corner Store Initiative.
“We’ve learned some things through that and I want to let that program phase out, get that data, reflect on that data and then continue to push for better strategies after that,” he said. “But I want to make a data informed push.”
The Healthy Corner Store Initiative works to increase access to and the affordability of healthy foods, increase the knowledge of existing programs that support food access, build partnerships with organizations and store owners to facilitate the sourcing and distribution of affordable healthy foods in Wichita, support the local food economy through purchasing from local farms and overall improve the health outcomes of Wichita residents.
Joanna Sabally, who works for Wichita State in the Community Engagement Institute and the Center for Public Health Initiatives, said the program currently has 14 stores of varying tenure that are all working towards including fresh produce in their stores.
“One success story is that (Happy Grocery at 13th and Hillside) began to grow a lot of their own produce, and have been selling it through their market,” she said. “So we’re not necessarily reducing the number of defined food deserts from the USDA perspective, but what we are doing is making sure that there’s access to produce in those areas beyond the grocery store.”
The funding from the project came from the City of Wichita, and it began in November of 2024. To get the program started, Sabally and the Community Engagement Institute received technical assistance from The Food Trust, which “works with neighborhoods, institutions, retailers, farmers and policymakers across the country to ensure delicious, nutritious food for all.”
“A lot of communities are implementing (the Healthy Corner Store Initiative) with their support,” she said. “We didn’t have to build from scratch, we basically used what’s worked in other cities.
“It has made an impact in lots of cities around the US.”
Despite the technical assistance from The Food Trust, Sabally said that the stores in the program in Wichita are able to be flexible with programming to make it work for themselves, they don’t have to stick to the blueprint.
“(The stores) each have a different approach to how they’re adding produce, like some that are growing produce, others that are buying from local farmers, it’s really great to see how everything is kind of figuring out how to make this work for their businesses,” Sabally said.
Community experts and grassroots organizations
ICT Treehuggers is a local non-profit that works to educate people about the environment, urban farming, community gardens and homesteading. It is also part of the Healthy Corner Store Initiative.
Sarah Myers founded the Treehuggers, and said that this year, they are managing less community garden spaces than they have in the past and are focusing on creating home hubs in various neighborhoods.
“These are homeowners that have the admiration that want to learn how to garden, so we go in and show them how to turn their home into a homestead basically,” Myers said.
Myers said that they have several year-four homesteaders, who have learned permaculture and horticulture techniques. Permaculture is a blend of the words “permanent” and “agriculture” and is designed to create lasting plant systems year round. Horticulture is the study and science of growing plants in smaller, informed environments rather than in large-scale industrial areas.
Community members volunteer with ICT Treehuggers in a home hub garden. This home hub garden is located next door to the Treehuggers office space. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Myers). 
ICTTreehuggers Executive Director Sarah Myers pulls up some purple basil to re-pot. The organization works to educate people in Wichita on how to plant and grow their own food. (Photo by Maleah Evans). 
The home hub garden of a communitiy member in Wichita. The garden started last year, and has been replanted for this spring. (Photo by Maleah Evans). 
Community members volunteer with ICT Treehuggers during a garage sale community event. The organization can be found on Facebook and Instagram. (Photo courtesy of Sarah Myers). 
A lemon balm plant in the home hub garden of a community member on her second year of homesteading. (Photo by Maleah Evans).
“They’re sustainably harvesting their own water, growing food for their animals and or taking on new farm animals,” she said. “Showing people those pathways of sustainability, one less thing they have to purchase at a big store.”
Myers said the continuation of food deserts in the city comes from a lack of education and care, from people and the city overall.
“Our city governance needs to keep a better understanding of what people are actually considering as waste and distribute it and process it in a way that is sustainable for our community,” she said.
She said that working with the city would be a way to help combat this issue on a deeper level, but that it is work that needs to be done.
“Focus in on the groups that do have momentum and are continuously showing up, and support them,” she said. “It’s not easy work, but it’s work that needs to be done and I don’t think we need to ask for permission to solve the problems in our community,” she said.
Community and local government partnerships
“(ICT Treehuggers) is definitely a partnership that I think is possible,” Shepard said. “They’re doing grassroots work, and they’re on the ground and they’re meeting people where they are, and you always need that when you’re talking about these strategies.”
Shepard said that community gardens, especially ones at community staples like the Maya Angelou library and Fairmount Coffee shop are the intermediary before getting a grocery story.
“(They) empower our community to lean on each other, this idea of mutual aid, of community coming together, pouring their resources together and taking what you need when you need it, no questions asked. That’s what we kind of need to do right now,” he said. “I don’t think people should have to beg for basic human needs and I think people are quite frankly tired of repeating themselves over and over again.
“I’ve been here for 16 years, we’ve been talking about food deserts, particularly in Northeast Wichita since that time.”
Shepard mentioned his predecessor, Brandon Johnson’s advocacy for a grocery store at 21st and Grove, which is now a Dollar General Market, creating more access to fresh produce to people in the area.
“Even if it’s doing small things like that to work towards progress, that’s where I’m at right now. How do I get food, healthy food into the homes and on the tables of the families that need it the most in my district?” he said.
Maleah Evans is the Spring 2026 Semester intern for the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. They are graduating and will pursue a career in journalism.