Our ever-growing community is becoming more and more diverse with each passing day. The public institutions within our area, such as schools and businesses, have also been encouraging intercultural competence.

Additionally, as housing and road development increase to make room for newcomers, there may be other backgrounds and cultures coming into the area as well. This means we, as a community, need to open up and break down barriers to welcome these cultures. This also includes food culture.

However, our local grocery stores are still lacking when it comes to providing diverse foods.

Large, popular grocery stores like Fred Meyer, Safeway or QFC are located near neighborhoods and apartments for convenience. However, these stores are far from convenient for ethnic families and result in searching for culture-specific stores (my family shops at H-Mart all the way in Lynnwood). Fred Meyer may have sections for ethnic foods, but they are proven to be very small and limited to only Hispanic and Asian packaged ingredients. How can we welcome diversity when our trusted grocery stores are still lacking in providing for diverse communities?

Jacqueline Pham

Bothell