New York City is the largest city in the United States. It has a population of over 8 million people, with an additional 12 million in the greater metropolitan area. Over the last decade the City has been growing faster than the region.
New York City residents spend $30 billion on food annually, and the City's volume of procurement for school food is second only to that of the Unites States Department of Defense. New York City's neighborhoods are dense, pedestrian-oriented, urban environments where supermarket square footage to people ratios are between 3 and 4 times higher than national ratios. However, the Department of Health estimates that approximately three million New Yorkers have inadequate access to healthy food retail, particularly in low-income neighborhoods, where pharmacies, convenience stores, and discount stores account for much of the food retailer. These underserved areas of the Bronx, central and eastern Brooklyn, far eastern Queens, and Harlem also have high prevalence of diet-related diseases.
There are over 100 farmers markets in NYC, and a large a growing number of New Yorkers are interested and engaged in issues related to regional food systems.
Barbara Askin is the community liaison for our New York, NY site.