A Supermarket Need Index determined areas lacking access to fresh food. The dark green areas show FRESH Food store areas and light green shows additional areas where financial incentives may be available. (Map courtesy of NYC Department of City Planning)
Growing up in Harlem, Gail Brown got used to having limited access to fresh foods. She now shops at Fine Fare, a chain supermarket on Lenox Avenue and 116th Street, but still doesn’t see farm fresh or organic food. “I’m a little disgusted with this,” she said, pointing to the package of cellophane-wrapped chicken in her cart. “But this is the selection they had tonight.” Brown describes it as “second class food.”
Laura Purcell, who moved from the Upper West Side to central Harlem, also shops at Fine Fare when she needs something quick. For larger orders, “I tend to shop at Fairway,” she said, adding that she appreciated that store’s wider selection when she lived further downtown.
The City Planning Commission has voted to approve a fresh food program that offers incentives to develop supermarkets in targeted neighborhoods, including Central and East Harlem and Washington Heights. The City Council has until November 24 to review the proposal.
The Planning Commission developed a Supermarket Need Index last year to pinpoint areas with high levels of diet-related disease and limited supermarket access. The index showed that East and Central Harlem and Washington Heights needed better access to fresh food. New Yorkers living there and in Inwood are more likely to be obese and to have diabetes and other diet-related health conditions than other Manhattan residents, according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The FRESH program, short for Food Retail Expansion to Support Health, would allow businesses certified as “fresh” to be 20,000 square feet larger than the law currently permits. Such businesses would also benefit from reduced real estate taxes, sales tax exemptions and reductions in the amount of required parking.
A fresh-certified business would dedicate at least 6,000 square feet to selling groceries, according to the amendment, with 30 percent of that area designated for perishable foods like produce, meat and dairy products.
The FRESH program aims to improve the health of New Yorkers in “underserved areas,” according to a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of City Planning. The department also expects the program to generate new jobs for neighborhood residents.
