FEDERAL, LOCAL AND CIVIC OFFICIALS & LEADERS TEAM UP WITH WHITE HOUSE
TO PUSH FRESH FOOD TO NEW YORK CITY’S UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

By Keith L. Forest
It has been reported that over 3 million New York City residents live in so-called Food Deserts – areas where they have no access to fresh, nutritious food. Anyone living in Bedford Stuyvesant or other communities of color can attest to that. Our corner stores and bodegas are packed with soda, processed and often outdated food, literally leaving no options to eat or prepare a healthy well-balanced meal.

According to the New York City Department of City Planning, approximately 3 million New York City residents live in communities where there is consistent and reasonable access to nutritious and non- processed food. Over 83% of Brooklyn districts, inclusive of Bedford Stuyvesant, East New York and Bushwick, fall short of the city’s average. This lack of access to healthy food continues to wreck havoc in our community and contributes to the alarming rate of obesity, diabetes and heart disease that is already rampant in our neighborhoods. A 2008 Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report estimated that 21.5% of New York City’s population and over 55% of adults were overweight or obese. The report estimates that obesity cost our nation close to 150 billion a year in increased healthcare cost.

In an effort to combat these startling statistics and reduce the rising rate of obesity and food insecurity, US Senator Christine Gillibrand (D-NY), Representative Nydia Velazquez(D-NY) joined City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), UFCW Local 1500 President Bruce Both, RWDSU President Stuart Applebaum, and PolicyLink Founder & CEO Angela Glover Blackwell to launch the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The new legislation authored by Christine Gillibrand invests over 1 billion through loans and grant to help build over 270 stores in the metro area creating over 2,600 jobs in the City.

“Millions of New Yorkers do not have access to healthy food,” stated US Congresswoman Christine Gillibrand. “By building new grocery stores in underserved areas across the state we can give people the opportunity to live longer, healthier lives, save billions in health care costs, and create tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. “

“We have a health crisis in this country, in terms of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure, that it disproportionately impacting low-income people and communities of color, said Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder & CEO of the national research and action institute PolicyLink “Nationally, only 8% of African Americans currently live in census tract with a supermarket, and far too many Black and Latinos reside in areas underserved by a grocery store. To ensure that people are eating healthy diets, we must push to make healthier choices available in their neighborhoods.”

Modeled after a successful program in Pennsylvania, The health Food Financing Initiative gives priority to state and localities that have already begun efforts to build new grocery stores in food desert area. Under Mayor Bloomberg and Speaker Christina Quinn leadership in enacting zone and land=ise change designed to encourage the development of fresh food retail, New York City is well positioned to begin receive immediate funding.

New York State has already established a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to administer over $10 million in loans and grants for new grocery stores. The CDFI will help local and state partners identify areas in need of healthy food option and support project to bring fresh food to house areas. These projects will be financed through a mix of loans and one-tine grants to help businesses start u or expand their operations. Grants will likely range from 30,000 up to $250,000 with loans ranging $50,000 to 5 million.

Keith L. Forest is a freelance publicist, writer and proud Bedford-Stuyvesant home owner who lives and works in the beloved community. His current blog space mybedstuy.blogspot.com seeks to celebrate the people and places that make up this great community while addressing issues such as gentrification, predatory lending and other ill norms that seek to exploit, discredit and harm the area and its people.