A coalition of 25 community organizations has a message for British food giant Tesco: “Welcome to America. Can we talk?”

Tesco, the fourth largest retail chain in the world, last December began the process of opening an estimated 130 Fresh and Easy Neighborhood Markets, and has particularly expressed an intention to make these stores environmentally friendly and provide customers with” high quality, fresh and nutritious food at affordable prices.”

The company, which opened its U.S. headquarters in El Segundo, also said it plans to open locations in underserved communities like South Los Angeles, and one of the stores on the drawing board is a market at Adams Boulevard at Central Avenue.

But the coalition, called the Alliance for Healthy and Responsible Grocery Stores is concerned that what Tesco says and what it does may be two different things.

“Tesco has made promises of jobs and being an environmental champion and opening stores in underserved communities. We want to acknowledge what they have done to date, but what is absent is a community conversation and a community benefits agreement,” said Rev. Norman Johnson, pastor of First New Christian Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, and a member of a Blue Ribbon Commission that recently issued a report on the inequalities in the Los Angeles grocery industry.

Johnson spoke at a press conference the Alliance held Thursday to invite Tesco to sit down at the table with them to hammer out a community benefits agreement.

“Tesco has met with a relatively small group of organizations, but nothing like a coalition of this size. We’re saying to them if you want to do business with the community, you’ve got to talk with a broader group of people,” added Johnson, who said the Alliance is looking for the food company to clarify what is offering and needs, discuss what the community wants and needs, and then put promises in writing as a community benefits agreement.

According to Danny Feingold, a spokesperson with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), community benefits agreements started in 1999 when Jackie Goldberg was a city council member and established a agreement with the developer of the Hollywood and Highland project. Since that time he said about a half a dozen more have been hammered out including one in South Los Angeles involving the Marlton Square project.

Feingold also pointed out that while Tesco has promised to build in underserved community, so far only one of the building permits that it has already obtained would benefit this population.

According to a spokesman for Tesco, the company has committed to open 30 stores by February including a location at Rosecrans and Central Avenues in Compton. The food retailer is also in negotiation on a number of sites in Los Angeles county in neighborhoods that have been traditionally underserved: Central and Adams, Broadway and Manchester Avenues; Pico and San Vicente Boulevards; Crenshaw and Jefferson Boulevards; Crenshaw Boulevard and 52nd Street; Vanowen Street Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard; and Alameda Street at the 91 Freeway in Compton.

The Alliance, in a letter that was to be hand delivered to Tesco Thursday asked the company to sign an agreement that will “guarantee access to fresh and healthy food in underserved communities, access to decent middle class jobs for local residents, affordable family health care, fair pension benefits, job training and advancement, freedom from retaliation, and basic rights on the job. It will also ensure that Fresh and Easy stores do not increase crime, traffic, noise and pollution in our communities.”

In a statement released by the company’s Simon Uwins, chief marketing officer for Fresh and Easy, the company upheld its intent: “We stand by our promise to deliver fresh, quality, affordable foods in all type of neighborhoods, to be a good steward of the environment and to be great place to work. We are looking forward to opening our first stores later this year, where everyone will be able to decide whether we lived up to our promises.”