SAN FRANCISCO – In a recent article on TakePart.com, writer Liz Dwyer discusses a San Francisco program that helps teach corner store operators in low-income communities how to successfully swap the typical not-good-for-you products for fresh produce items sorely lacking in food deserts.

Healthy Retail SF (HRSF), a program that helps stores begin stocking items that promote well-being provides a complimentary service to store owners who make a three-year commitment to selling fruits and vegetables. HRSF also partners with Sutti Associates, a firm specializing in grocery store design that has partnered with the program, to rehabilitate a corner store’s existing space so that fresh produce can be stocked. The city of San Francisco also donates refrigerated cases, shelves and other necessities.

HRSF has produced a video that illustrates the transformation of one store in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, which joined the program after nine years of operation in the historically high-poverty area. The TakePart article mentions that while there’s no full-size grocery store in the neighborhood, liquor retailers are in abundance, resulting in rampant alcohol abuse.

As part of HRSF, retailers are provided with signage and nutrition shelf displays, to encourage customers to purchase fresh produce. Another aspect of the program requires retailers to reduce emphasis on sales of items such as alcohol and tobacco by taking down the majority of related ads and any ads placed at eye-level for children.

Thus far, the program seems to be a win-win, as participants like the Tenderloin store owners say that their customers are buying the fresh produce, which also turns a higher profit for the store than items like processed food and alcohol.

For more information on what NACS is doing to help retailers implement fresh programs in-store, visit nacsonline.com/refresh.