Prince George’s County leaders don’t claim the county hosts healthy restaurants. But there is a heated debate about offering them incentives.
Prince George’s County leaders are not claiming that the county welcomes and needs restaurants with healthy options. But there is a heated debate about promoting, and even offering favorable loans and incentives to restaurants that do so.
Council Vice Chairman Wala Blegay is proposing a bill that would require the county to not only promote healthy restaurants, but also offer them interest-free loans, as well as other incentives. At a committee hearing on Thursday afternoon, the bill received a lot of support from some restaurateurs and other healthy food advocates.
“The things we put in our bodies affect us in so many different ways,” said Jeremiah Abu Baku, owner of a Fresh Green restaurant in Largo. “We have strong support from the community. Every day we welcome new people to visit us, they rant and rave that we have a healthy option and they really appreciate that we do.
One of Fresh Green’s founders, Duane King, also said the measure was important.
“We’ve embarked on this journey to attack the food desert in Prince George’s County,” said King, who by the end of the year said he would have opened 13 Fresh Green restaurants in the county.
Jo Saint George is a healthy eating advocate who works with HBCUs. She urged the county to impose even stricter health standards, asking to make 30% of meals, not just 30% of the menu, healthy. In this way, side dishes would also be taken into account in the sanitary standards. She also argued for higher standards as to what would constitute a “healthy option”.
“We don’t believe USDA minimum standards should ever be used,” Saint George said. “We need to raise the standard and help people understand what health really is.”
The hearing took a turn when Sakinda Skinner, a council liaison for County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, spoke out against the bill.
“The administration recognizes the importance of healthy food options,” Skinner said.
But she argued that what is proposed in the bill is simply unaffordable for the county with its current budget.
“This bill, as written, is another example of a new program that would result in additional costs to the county,” Skinner said. “This bill, as written, requires county agencies such as the health department to analyze, develop and pay for menus at no cost to the restaurant. There are also additional mandates,” she argued, “allowing no opportunity to generate revenue to help pay for this new program.”
She said the problem is that each eligible restaurant in the county could get about $10,000.
“This administration is on a tight budget and is trying to ensure that funds go towards maintaining the basic government services that our residents expect and deserve,” Skinner said. “A program like this incurs costs, generates no revenue, and adds another burden on government agencies.”
Council chairman Tom Dernoga said it was one of the few times he was left speechless by what he heard.
” I am amazed. This is probably the most myopic and outrageous statement I have ever heard in this council chamber,” he said. “We have a health crisis. We talk about “It doesn’t increase revenue”. What we’re really talking about is saving lives, saving money in our health care systems for people who won’t have diabetes, who won’t have health problems associated with a poor diet.
Dernoga pointed to the fact that he had just found $500,000 of what he considered wasteful spending in another agency’s budget proposal.
“Some people are looking at the glass half full, the administration is looking at the glass totally empty,” he said.
Blegay also delivered a fiery response to Skinner’s comments.
“It’s our duty as a government to protect our residents, to improve the quality of life for our residents, and it’s only a penny,” Blegay said. “I’m looking at a budget where we’re looking at almost $10 million for a sports park. And we can’t put $2 million for healthy restaurant options? »
The bill passed easily out of committee and will be brought to the full council for consideration in the coming weeks.