Needles council adopts food-desert designation, directs pursuit of USDA financing to attract a grocer

The Needles City Council waived the reading and adopted Resolution 2023-19 to designate the city as a "food desert" and directed city staff to pursue available USDA financing and other grant opportunities to support a private party seeking to build a grocery store.

City Manager said the U.S. Department of Agriculture runs a grocery-store program for qualifying communities that offers conduit loans — federally guaranteed, low-interest financing provided to private parties. He emphasized the designation will not supplant private ownership: the city would not build or operate a store but would use USDA tools to make projects more financially attractive. Staff and councilors noted the designation addresses one barrier (financing for construction) but does not eliminate other obstacles such as high operating costs, distributor reluctance and California workers' compensation rates that reduce carriers' margins.

Council members asked whether the designation would resolve distribution and produce-delivery problems that contributed to prior store closures. The city manager acknowledged those are separate operational issues (including an earlier estimate that a grocer required an operating subsidy of roughly $200,000 per year) and said the designation is a partial, not complete, solution. The council voted to adopt the resolution on the record.