Fresh Veggies in a Food Desert
Posted on 08. Dec, 2009 by Janet Lawrence in Uncategorized
Junior's Food Outlet sells no fresh produce. Photo credit by Janet Lawrence.
By Janet Lawrence
The only grocery store that East New York resident Gloria Harvey can get to easily is Junior’s Supermarket—a big store among shuttered row houses and vacant lots on New Lots Avenue. Despite its size, it doesn’t sell fresh fruit or vegetables.
That’s a problem for Harvey, 64, a diabetic who relies on a wheelchair to get around and food stamps to pay for her groceries. A cab to a supermarket with vegetables runs her $10, she said.
“You gotta go so far,” Harvey said recently in front of her building on Miller Avenue. “They need more meat and fish stores here. Ain’t no vegetable stands.”
Harvey’s troubles are not unique. In East New York 30 percent of adults are obese and 16 percent have diabetes. This prompted the city’s health department to conduct a 2008 study to get to the root of the crisis. The study blamed residents’ poor health on limited access to fresh, nutritious foods.
Last spring Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a program to encourage more supermarket development in these food deserts. The program would offer additional floor area in mixed-use buildings, reduce parking requirements and allows larger stores to locate as-of-right in light manufacturing areas.
Organic veggies were on offer at East New York Farmers Market. Photo credit Janet Lawrence.
But with only a handful of full-service grocery stores in East New York, no major progress is yet visible. Indeed the East New York Food Coop, at 419 New Lots Ave. just closed down.
East New York Farmers Market is one way the community is addressing the problem.
“The more fresh produce is available, the more people eat it. Nutrition here is a result of not being able to buy better food,” Sarita Daftary said from behind a cash register at the market on Schenck Avenue. The market closes for the season on Nov. 14.
Daftary is the program director for a local non-profit, East New York Farms, which was founded 10 years ago to educate the public on locally grown food.
The group runs an internship program to train local youth in sustainable agriculture. Interns between the ages of 13 and 15 cultivate vegetables on a half-acre urban farm on the corner of Schenck and Livonia avenues.
Later they sell the produce at market. Last Saturday, the vegetables on offer included fresh-picked green pole beans and purple hyacinth beans.
A local teen works in the community garden. Photo credit Janet Lawrence.
Intern Cameal Tapper, 15, didn’t know what okra or bitter melon was a few years ago, she said from her post at the market’s vegetable station. Now she not only grows them, she can educate fellow community members on their medicinal benefits.
Okra’s high fiber content can help stabilize blood sugar and bitter melon contains a plant insulin that can help keep blood sugars down. Tapper passes this information on to senior citizens that shop at the market.
The farmers’ market is one of the few venues in the community that sells fresh organic vegetables at a reasonable price.
Daftary, who wore a hat that read, “New Yorkers compost more, waste less,” swiped community members’ food stamp debit cards. For every $5 of food stamps a family spends at participating farmers’ markets, the city health department provides a $2 coupon that can be used at the market.
Shallow brought his twin sons to the market. Photo credit Janet Lawrence.
Javed Shallow, 27, an unemployed window installer, said he came to the market because the produce is fresh and cheap. He bought two pounds of onions and peppers for $8, which he guessed would have cost double a supermarket.
“I’m here so they can eat healthy,” he said, pointing to his twin sons, Ajani and Tariq, both 3.
Tapper, a sophomore in high school, said the internship has changed her eating habits. She admitted she still indulges in sausage, egg, and cheese sandwiches from a neighborhood deli, but overall her diet has improved.
“I’ve cut down on junk food and candy. I don’t eat at MacDonald’s anymore,” she said, “I try to balance.”
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