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New York's Grocery Gap
by Gail Robinson
November 21, 2005

The South Bronx feeds the region. Eighty percent of the metropolitan area’s fresh produce and 40 percent of its fresh meat comes through the huge Hunts Point market there. And with the opening of the new Fulton Fish market at Hunts Points last week, the neighborhood will be a leading supplier of fish as well.
| Related
Stories in the Community Gazettes: • Growing Food in East New York • Marketing Health in the South Bronx • Small Grocers Survive on the Upper West Side |
FOOD CITY
Food is a multibillion-dollar business in New York City with more than 1,100 grocery stores of at least 4,000 square feet. New York boasts the fresh fish markets and vegetable stands of Chinatown, the Middle Eastern grocers of Atlantic Avenue and icons like Zabar’s. Markets such as Dean and De Luca and Citarella cater to the food obsessed planning to serve Belon oysters, foie gras and truffles on their Thanksgiving tables.
Despite all of that and tens of thousands of smaller delis, greenmarkets and bodegas, many New Yorkers confront what the American Institute of Nutrition has called “food insecurity” – an
inability, either because of money or availability, to get safe, nutritional
food.“Where
to Grab a Bite,” (in .pdf format) a 2004 survey by City Limits, looked at the number of grocery stores in each ZIP code. If it's not surprising that affluent Soho has the most places to buy food per resident, it is certainly startling to discover that several ZIP codes in Queens, including ones covering parts of College Point and Bayside, have no grocery stores at all. Overall, Manhattan has the most grocery stores per resident; Brooklyn the least.
“It’s tough to get high quality supermarkets into the ‘hood,” Alicia
Glenn, vice president of Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, has
said. Supermarkets
must sell a large volume of goods and so need large amounts of space – perhaps a half a city block.
And some in the food industry predict the grocery shortage could spread to more affluent areas as New York becomes an ever more expensive place to do business. “The better the neighborhood, the less supermarkets there are going to be” because rents are too high, said Morton Sloan, part owner of 10 Associated supermarkets in Manhattan and the Bronx.
Overall, said John Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristedes, the picture is “bleak” for grocery stores throughout the city, largely because of high rents. No one – from Whole Foods to the small mom and pop – is immune to the industry woes, he said, adding, “Something’s got to give.”
LIFE WITHOUT GROCERIES
“When I moved back to Central Brooklyn in 1985, I was struck by its barren nutritional landscape …. The storefront food provision systems themselves – ‘bullet-proof’ fast food joints, poorly stocked and over-crowded supermarkets, cruddy, stomach-curdling bodegas – seemed to represent a level of self-destruction and dietary corruption that went well beyond my inability to buy tofu,” writes Mark Winston-Griffith. “Seldom do we consider one of the most basic elements – how an area feeds itself – as a sign of neighborhood well being.” And many areas feed themselves expensively and unhealthily. In one study (in .pdf format) researchers found that a mango cost 67 cents at Pathmark, 79 cents at Associated -- and $1.79 at an East Harlem bodega.
HEALTH EFFECTS
All of this takes a toll on health. According to a 2003 study by the city health department, about 8 percent of all adult New Yorkers have been diagnosed with diabetes. With about a third of all diabetics unaware that they have the disease, as many as 12 percent of New York City adults could have diabetes – well about the national rate of 7 percent nationally. In addition, an increasing number of New York City children are developing what used to be called adult-onset diabetes but is now referred to as Type II diabetes – because so many children now develop it. Doctors blame obesity, poor foods and lack of exercise. “Simple sugars, refined sweets, corn syrups, sodas, vegetables like potatoes and corn, without question, create an unfavorable environment for the pancreas," Dr. Henry Anhalt, director of pediatric endocrinology at Maimonides Medical Center, told the Daily News. He added that meals high in fat and calories, such as a typical fast food lunch, increase the risk. Almost a quarter of all New York City elementary school students are obese, compared with a national rate of 15 percent. The problem is particularly severe among Hispanic children, more than 30 percent of who are obese.ATTRACTING SUPERMARKETS
The problem has its roots in the 1950s and 1960s, when many grocery stores followed their middle-class customers to the suburbs. As a result, many who remained in the city had to rely “on small independent groceries that charged high prices and offered minimal variety and corner stores selling a limited selection of processed foods,” according to “Healthy Food, Healthy Communities,” a report by PolicyLink.

PROVIDING HEALTHY FOOD
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Food Bank for New York City
Green Guerillas
Greenmarket, Council on the Environment of NYC
Hunger Action New York State
Just Food
Northeast Regional Anti-Hunger Network Articles and Studies
“Where to Grab a Bite,” (in .pdf format)
Food Redlining: A Hidden Cause of Hunger
Harvest in the City (Earth Island Journal)
Healthy Foods, Healthy Communities
The Hoax of the Food Desert (Ludwig von Mises Institute)
Hunger and Obesity in East Harlem (in .pdf format) New York City Coalition Against Hunger
It’s Just Food (NYU School of Journalism)
Splat (New York) The war between Fresh Direct, Fairway and Whole Food
Discuss this Article
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New Bills: Tracking Stimulus and Unattended Idlers (2009-04-10)
City Faces a Rising Demand for Food Stamps (2009-04-06)
City, State Do Little to Address Female Genital Cutting (2009-03-24)
The Citizen (2009-03-21)
A Food Policy for New York (2009-03-04)
Stated Meeting: Clerk Battle and Food Allergies (2009-02-27)
Working for a Greener Harlem (2008-11-27)
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