(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s latest executive order directs city officials to explore acquiring former grocery stores to address current and potential food deserts.
Harrell’s executive order directs city staff to specifically focus on the Fred Meyer grocery store in the Lake City neighborhood, which is set to close later this month. The city would then find a third party to operate the site. The store’s closure has raised alarms in the community, as it would turn Lake City into a food desert with limited access to affordable, nutritious food.
The executive order directs city departments – including the Office of Planning and Community Development, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections and the Office of Economic Development – to identify other locations in Seattle that are currently or are at risk of becoming food deserts.
Additionally, the executive order explores ways for the city to acquire properties suitable for grocery stores in the future and to develop legislation changing land use, zoning and permitting regulations to encourage more stores in at-risk neighborhoods.
“This solution-focused Executive Order explores all options available to the city to ensure our children, older adults, people with mobility issues, and families have equitable access to fresh, local, affordable, and culturally relevant food and medicine,” Harrell said in a statement.
Currently, there are concentrations of food deserts in Seattle neighborhoods including Beacon Hill, Georgetown, Northgate, Rainier Beach, and Delridge, among others.
In response to the Fred Meyer closure, along with five other Kroger-affiliated stores in Puget Sound, United Food and Commercial Workers Union 3000 launched its Fresh Food for All campaign, which advocates for public-private partnerships to operate grocery stores. The Center Square reached out to UFCW 3000 for comment on Harrell’s executive order, but did not receive a response by the time of this publication.
The notion of government involvement in grocery stores has garnered some national attention recently in the form of leading New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal of a pilot program to establish city-owned grocery stores in each of the city’s five boroughs to combat high food prices. The goal is to create a “public option” for groceries, particularly in neighborhoods lacking access to affordable food.
Harrell’s opponent in the Seattle mayoral race, Katie Wilson, supports exploring publicly backed grocery stores to address food deserts. She envisions the city partnering with a private grocery provider or a union to ensure food access, not necessarily running the store itself. Her proposal involves a “public-option” store to keep food affordable and accessible in neighborhoods that lose grocery stores, according to UFCW 3000.
Critics of government involvement in grocery stores have raised concerns about inefficiency, competition, costs and political manipulation.
Earlier this month, Harrell proposed Council Bill 121094, emergency legislation intended to ban “anti-competitive covenants” and other land-use restrictions that block new grocery stores and pharmacies from opening in formerly occupied retail spaces. The bill’s emergency clause means it would take effect immediately upon being signed into law by the mayor. It’s set to be voted on by the city council on Oct. 28.
The city council is continuing deliberations on the proposed 2026 budget, which includes a 20% increase in food access funding. The city council currently plans on holding a final vote on the 2026 budget on Nov. 21.
