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Related Programs:

Corner Store Campaign
The Food Trust’s Corner Store Campaign seeks to reduce the incidence of diet-related disease and obesity by improving the snack food choices made by adolescents in corner stores.

School Food and Beverage Reform
A reform effort that works to improve the policy on vending machine snacks.

Supermarket Campaign
Our multi-state effort to improve access to supermarkets in underserved communities.

 

 

 

Supermarket Campaign in New York:

The Creation of the Healthy Food / Healthy Communities Initiative
and the New York City FRESH Initiative


In June 2006, a study conducted by the New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that 80 percent of the food stores in low-income communities in New York City are convenience stores, but only a tenth of them sell leafy green vegetables. As a result, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn began a concerted effort to increase access to healthy foods in these neighborhoods. The Food Trust worked with the City’s Food Policy Coordinator to convene the New York Supermarket Commission, together with the Food Bank for New York City, New York City Council and the Food Industry Alliance of New York.

In response to the work of the Commission, New York State Governor David Paterson created the $10 million Healthy Food / Healthy Communities Initiative, which will provide grants and loans to supermarkets who invest in underserved communities throughout the state. The program is modeled on the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative and administered as a public-private partnership by the Low Income Investment Fund, The Reinvestment Fund and The Food Trust. The Paterson Administration also tailored several existing incentive programs to better serve the supermarket industry and other fresh food retailers.

In New York City, the Department of City Planning created the FRESH Initiative, which makes a variety of targeted tax incentives and zoning enhancements available to supermarkets investing in lower-income, underserved neighborhoods across the city. Additionally, the State Department of Health provided a grant which enabled the city to hire a coordinator to provide market research to attract supermarkets and to help supermarkets navigate the permitting and approval process.


Learn more: Contact The Food Trust’s Brian Lang.