Next time you are home, open your refrigerator. Chances are it will be brimming with fruits, vegetables and other various ingredients necessary to cook the upcoming week’s nutritious meals. For many, this isn’t abnormal or special, yet in New York City, about 1.3 million people will go hungry daily because of food deserts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has defined food deserts as areas with at least 100 homes with no vehicle access located more than one-half mile from the nearest supermarket. Food deserts are not just inconvenient — they can often lead to food insecurity and health implications. New York City must swiftly adopt a multifaceted approach to combating food deserts that involves incentivization, partnerships with local farms and education on a nutritious lifestyle. Access to fresh and nutritious foods is essential to a more prosperous community, and more importantly, everyone in America should be guaranteed access to fresh produce.
Many supermarkets are not built in food deserts because they simply do not make enough money selling produce in these areas. These supermarket chains often have increased expenses in maintenance, security and crime management that cut into their profit margin and disincentivize them from opening stories in these areas. The New York government has to incentivize grocery chains to build full-service supermarkets in food desert areas so the potential benefits far outweigh the expenses. Government programs can include tax breaks for any supermarkets built in areas designated as food deserts, but they need to go one step further because tax breaks, as demonstrated by the 2009 FRESH program, do not incentivize chains enough.
Grocery chains should have their construction costs lowered through low-interest rate loans towards the development of the location or have parts of the construction process subsidized by the New York government to increase the profitability of a supermarket. To further increase a store’s chances of profit, New York City can develop a transportation system that solely brings surrounding residents to the supermarket built in the area. However, in exchange for these incentives, residents of food deserts cannot be held hostage to the prices arbitrarily dictated by the only supermarket in the area, and prices of certain basic goods would be capped. It is paramount to create a system where a supermarket’s expenses in food deserts can be lowered and thus increase their profit in a manner that makes grocery shopping for nearby residents affordable.
New York City should also look at creating partnerships with local farms and host farmer markets in areas to provide a simple and inexpensive way of bringing fresh produce to food deserts. The mobility and lack of permanent space required make farmer markets an efficient solution to food deserts beyond providing fresh, nutritious food at affordable prices. Farmers markets are an excellent way of engaging the local community while educating communities on the importance of nutritious foods and how to shop and cook healthily. The local New York City governments must support local farms to help them overcome some of the obstacles they face, such as difficulty advertising and lack of food assistance programs when trying to sell in lower-income communities.
Increasing the marketing of local farmers markets requires increased investment in an already existing USDA program (Farmers’ Market Promotion Program). Alongside increased investment into the program, higher and more grants should be awarded to farmers’ markets in food deserts to mitigate the added effort and additional costs required to increase their visibility in these areas. Additionally, the government should promote the acceptance of food assistance programs at local farmers’ markets by subsidizing the costs of Electronic Benefits Program (EBT) machines. These machines are necessary to allow those on food assistance programs to purchase produce at whatever location they are at and are covered by the USDA when implemented in retail stores. Many food deserts exist in low-income communities where food assistance programs are the primary method of purchasing groceries, making the increased accessibility of EBT machines necessary.
Perhaps just as important as increasing the accessibility of fresh produce to neighborhoods in food deserts is educating them about the importance of eating a healthy diet and which foods are nutritious. Those living in food deserts have often relied on fast-food chains for meals due to their lack of access to fresh produce and are accustomed to the sugary and highly processed foods offered. Educational programs such as SNAP-Ed need to be increased to continue spreading the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the detrimental consequences of a diet predicated on meals from fast-food chains. These educational programs must go beyond teaching the benefits of a healthy diet or the consequences of eating highly processed food and also teach those who were once in food deserts how to make healthy and tasty meals on a limited budget. Increasing awareness of the importance of eating a nutritious diet and a better understanding of how it can be done on a limited budget will create a ripple effect and lead to increased shopping, thus increased profits, at the supermarkets that are built in food deserts.
Easy access to fresh foods should not be a privilege but a right everyone experiences no matter where they live. Unfortunately, in New York City, one of the world’s wealthiest cities, far too many neighborhoods are food deserts predominantly due to monetary reasons. Combating food deserts and the food insecurity that often ensues is simple, but it requires local and state investment and pragmatic solutions to ensure accessibility to fresh produce is increased. It begins with increasing the incentives grocery chains have to build in food deserts, supporting and promoting local farms and farmers markets and educating food desert neighborhoods about the importance and how to achieve a healthy diet. Currently, in the Bronx, certain neighborhoods have 25 bodegas for a single full-service supermarket, and there are many similar ratios across the city. It is time for that ratio to be lowered.
Luca Amaturo, FCRH ’26, is a communications & media studies major from Marlboro, N.J.
