The City Spurs Grocery Stores to Underserved
The Bloomberg administration, which has already cut down on trans fats and distributed fruit vendors to produce-anemic neighborhoods, is now seeking to provide incentives for grocery stores to open in areas where most families spend their food budget at bodegas and drug stores. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved the proposal on Wednesday, reports The…
The Bloomberg administration, which has already cut down on trans fats and distributed fruit vendors to produce-anemic neighborhoods, is now seeking to provide incentives for grocery stores to open in areas where most families spend their food budget at bodegas and drug stores. The City Planning Commission unanimously approved the proposal on Wednesday, reports The New York Times, which would grant zoning and tax incentives to grocery stores, with set requirements about how much produce and other foods they sell. The city is eying northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn, the South Bronx, and downtown Jamaica in Queens. Many city officials, food experts, and grocery store executives approve of the plan, meant to spur economic growth in addition to encouraging health (and fighting the rising rates of obesity and diabetes), but the Times mentions a recent report to Congress by the Department of Agriculture that shows an uncertain correlation between obesity and access to healthy, fresh foods. Avi Kaner, a supermarket operator, said education is the main solution. If you force distribution of product to a population that’s not interested in it, or not educated in it, and the grocery stores can’t make a profit, he told the Times, they’ll eventually leave. Check out the Times article for more details about the program, similar programs across the country, and a finer breakdown of the pros and cons.
A Plan to Add Supermarkets to Poor Areas [NY Times]
FRESH Food Store Program Overview [DOCP]
NYC’s Neighborhood Grocery Store and Supermarket Shortage [DOCP]
Photo by Royce Bair
dittoburg- indeed we could learn (but in case you haven’t noticed, some of us are notoriously hard headed) 🙂
What i wonder about is why the fresh produce is so much more affordable in the wonderful Chinatown Markets and expensive elsewhere. I love tomatoes but I swear, 2.99/lb? As much as some meat. It’s really crazy.
The thing is “pasta, rice, potatoes and a bit of non-prime cut meat,” as MM writes about, is not “fast food/junk food,” as Biff describes. MM’s memory is revaltory of the real issue here, which is not so much a lack of fruits and vegetables, as an over abundance of processed foods that are cheap and fast. If you’re working two ro three jobs with no other adult at home it’s way easier to heat something up or get take out than to cook, no matter what it is you’re actually eating.
Dietary issues get complicated. Culture has as much to do with what we eat as money, as do genetics. Take Caribbean food. Lots of vegetables and fruits, but also lots of fried foods, for very practical reasons. Hot climates mean cooking in ways that will preserve food when refrigeration is not available to poorer people. Frying and cooking with powerful spices protects food from spoilage, at least for a little while. Breads, cassavah, and potatoes stretch a meal out, and fill you up. There is a lot of obesity in the Caribbean, and among Caribbean people elsewhere. It’s not because they don’t eat vegetables and fruits.
I’m sure there have been studies as to diet, culture, economics and ethnicity. It’s ironic that the elite in the past would have been plump. They ate better, and more often, than the peasantry, and didn’t have to do strenuous manual labor to survive. As western societies evolved, that changed, and the western beauty ideal changed as well. Now it’s actually chic, and rich, to look as if you survive on one wilted lettuce leaf a week.
infinitejester – give me a f’ing break – tobacco is an ADDICTIVE substance that offers no benefit whatsoever and has negative health effects no matter how little you consume…..
Even a soda can provide liquid/quench thirst and offer calories, and there is really no evidence that in small quantities it is harmful.
Your analogy is silly.
Nothing beats fresh corn & fresh tomatoes and that season is about to end. 🙁
“there’s been a couple of anti-burger movies”
ditto, just a technical note: if you’re referring to Fast Food Nation, Food Inc., etc., I don’t consider them anti-burger (anti-meat in general) movies. To me they are more about showing people the awful conditions under which the animals are kept, the issues around a few gigantic players dominating the meat industry, worker conditions, quality of the food, etc. They aren’t meant to convert individuals to become vegetarians and vegans.
Montrose @ 10:24 is dead on.
I just came home from shopping at the grocery store. The price of fresh fruits and vegetables is pretty astronomical right now.
My suggestion for anyone on a budget. Buy frozen. They have great sales on the big bags of frozen veggies. Also, you don’t have to worry about them spoiling. You use them when you want to and in most instances they’re MORE nutritious because they’re frozen within 24 hrs. of being picked.
Most fresh veggies lose the majority of their nutritional value 7 days after being picked. Think about how long it takes to pick, transport them, stock them and have them sit out before you buy it, bring it home and stick it in your fridge for another 3-5 days.
Hardly worth it at all.
Montrose, great post at 10:24. Might enlighten some people who criticize people in less affluent areas who, out of necessity rather than choice, feed themselves and their families fast food / junk food instead of more healthy alternatives.
Everyone try to go see Food, Inc. while we’re on the topic of nutrition.
True, ditto – I meant, “up until recently Big food got a free pass…”