NYC, feds battle over 'food desert zones'

In a battle for more federal dollars to open fresh-food markets in poor, working-class neighborhoods, New York City officials are balking at a federal rule requiring residents to live more than a mile from one food store before subsidies can fund another.

At least 500 people have to live more than a mile from a supermarket to be classified as living in a "food desert zone," said Jordan Brackett, the mayor's deputy food policy coordinator.

The criteria mean "city residents, who do not generally drive cars, have to schlep their groceries for more than 20 blocks -- that doesn't make sense," he said.

The USDA claims only 26,000 city residents live in food desert zones, and only seven neighborhoods -- three in Staten Island and four in the Rockaways -- are classified as "food desert zones."

City officials claim there are 3 million people in the city who cannot buy fresh food where they live, and that there are at least 700 neighborhoods that can be considered food desert zones, said Brackett.

The disparity shuts out the city from sharing in $35 million offered through President Barack Obama's Healthy Food Financing Initiative. The president's budget proposes another $330 million for next year.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who sits on the Agriculture Committee, said last fall that she would push to change the USDA's 1-mile requirement, a spokeswoman said.

"Food deserts have missed capturing the majority of New York State's food deserts," said Gillibrand in a letter to Tom Vilsack, secretary of the Department of Agriculture.

"For example, New York City's largest food deserts are in Harlem, the Bronx, central Brooklyn and parts of Queens, but the USDA locator fails to identify all of these food deserts."

According to the USDA, the locator map that pinpoints desert food zones is not the only tool used to assess eligibility for the program.

Ann Wright, USDA deputy undersecretary, said in a statement the map "is designed to assist efforts to expand the availability of nutritious food and should be used in coordination with local data."

The public-private food desert zone program "can help make fresh, healthy, and affordable food more readily available," said Wright.

But on East Harlem's 110th Street -- a newly renovated market selling 100 varieties of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, an oasis of fresh food -- did not qualify for the program because the area is not listed as a food desert zone.

The independent D&S market, which opened two months ago, replaced refrigerators, a sagging floor and a ceiling with low-hanging air conditioners, said store manager John Ahn, 46. "This place was terrible. The food was spoiled."

Customers interviewed last week said they welcomed the new supermarket, since they rely on corner fruit and vegetable push carts and bodegas that primarily sell cigarettes, soda and snack foods for their food shopping -- but the prices in the new market are steep.

"This is the closest supermarket we have," said Maria Santana, 50, who lives on 102nd Street. Santana, putting three plantains into a plastic bag, said "these look nice and sweet -- $2 for three."

Grandmother Diana Hernandez, 63, who pushed her grandson's stroller in the store, said, "I think the store is great. We need it -- but it's pricey. I'll come back for the sales."

She left empty-handed.