(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Gov. JB Pritzker signed a measure Friday that will try to reduce the number of “food deserts” across Illinois.
More than 3 million people in Illinois are estimated to live in food deserts, or areas where access to healthy, affordable food is limited.
One such community is Venice, Illinois, which has a population of less than 2,000, in Southern Illinois. Pritzker traveled there to enact the Illinois Grocery Initiative, a $20 million pilot program that will support existing grocers and encourage new grocery stores to open, through incentives and other strategies.
Pritzker said a grocery store anchored in and run by people in the neighborhood is more likely to survive.
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