🛠️ The Issue
Ward 7 and Ward 8 are home to over 150,000 people—but together, we only have three full-service grocery stores. Families here are forced to travel miles for fresh produce and affordable meals, while millionaires fly into D.C. to earn thousands per game—and leave without investing a dime in the communities where their fans live.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

We’re calling on the D.C. Council to create a Healthy Neighborhood Grocery Fund, a dedicated investment tool to build full-service grocery stores in food deserts, starting with Wards 7 and 8.

We also urge Councilmembers to explore bold, creative ways to fund the Grocery Fund—including:

 ✅ A voluntary contribution or local impact fee from visiting professional athletes
✅ A stadium-related surcharge or ticket tax
✅ Other equitable revenue strategies that don’t burden everyday D.C. residents

Our families can’t eat policy memos. We need a funded solution.

 
🌎 Why This Matters Nationally
Across the U.S., cities are subsidizing stadiums while communities go hungry. Now, D.C. is considering a major public investment to bring the Washington Commanders back to RFK Stadium—located in the heart of Ward 7, where basic grocery access remains out of reach for thousands of families.

This isn’t just a D.C. issue. It’s a national example of misplaced priorities. Instead of fueling more stadium deals, let’s fund what really matters: food security, local dignity, and long-term community health.

 
📣 Not in D.C.? You Can Still Help:
🔁 Sign and share this petition to support food justice and smart local investment
🏷️ Tag athletes and teams using #GroceryJusticeNow
🤔 Ask your city: Where does our public money go—and who does it serve?

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Title:
D.C. Families Deserve Grocery Stores, Not Just Stadium Deals

By Patricia Stamper, ANC Commissioner for 7C06

In Washington, D.C., we’re used to being asked to cheer. Cheer for a new stadium. Cheer for a new team name. Cheer for the return of billion-dollar franchises. But for the more than 150,000 people living east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8, the loudest cheer we could offer right now would be for something far simpler: a grocery store.

That’s because, today, Wards 7 and 8—home to hardworking families, seniors, veterans, educators, and children—have just four full-service grocery stores between them. Meanwhile, many D.C. neighborhoods west of the river have four grocery stores within walking distance of each other. We call this what it is: food apartheid. And while we’re constantly promised that better days are ahead, we’ve learned that broken promises don’t feed families.

Now, the D.C. Council is considering a major public investment to bring the Washington Commanders back to RFK Stadium—right in the heart of Ward 7. And let’s be clear: I’m not opposed to football. I’m opposed to the idea that we can find hundreds of millions for a stadium before we find funding for something as basic and urgent as food access.

This is why I support the creation of a Healthy Neighborhood Grocery Fund—a dedicated public investment tool to build and sustain full-service grocery stores in historically neglected communities. And it’s why I’m calling on my fellow residents, advocates, and Councilmembers to back bold and equitable strategies to fund this initiative.

We’re not asking working-class D.C. residents to foot the bill. We’re calling for creative, commonsense revenue ideas—like a stadium-related ticket surcharge, a local impact fee on visiting professional athletes, or voluntary team contributions. These aren’t radical ideas. They’re rational ones. And they’re rooted in fairness. If out-of-town millionaires are going to use our city to profit, they should help nourish the communities where their fans live.

The need is urgent. You can’t buy fresh vegetables with good intentions. Our families can’t eat policy memos. What we need—what we deserve—is a funded solution.

The reality is, D.C. is at a crossroads. We can continue to pour public money into stadium deals while families stand in long food pantry lines. Or we can be the city that led the way in reversing food deserts by doing something radical: treating access to healthy food like a right, not a luxury.

This isn’t just a local fight. Across America, cities are subsidizing sports teams while Black and Brown communities remain cut off from the basics. But D.C. has a chance to do better—to lead with equity, imagination, and courage.

So let’s do what we always say we will: invest in the people first. Let’s build the grocery stores. Let’s fund the neighborhoods. Let’s make Ward 7 and Ward 8 places where residents don’t have to travel miles just to feed their families.

We can’t afford to wait. And we won’t.