Campaign Description
Millions of New Yorkers live in “food deserts,” neighborhoods in which the absence of full-service supermarkets denies residents access both to affordable healthy food and to quality jobs with decent wages and benefits.
These food deserts occur primarily in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, compounding problems of chronic unemployment and underemployment with disproportionate incidences of diabetes, obesity and other chronic health problems.
In 2008, NY Jobs with Justice worked with UFCW Local 1500 to launch the Good Food, Good Jobs campaign to bring good food, good health, and good jobs to every New Yorker. Together we built Building Blocks, a coalition of community organizations, food advocates, food service unions, policy advocates and responsible businesses, to develop a plan to eliminate food deserts in New York City. The goal was to use zoning and financial incentives to encourage supermarkets to locate in underserved neighborhoods, and to tie incentives to standards requiring participating businesses to sell fresh food, pay living wages, and use sustainable business practices that benefit surrounding communities. We won a major victory in 2009 when the New York City Council adopted many of our recommendations with the passage of the FRESH program.
We plan to redouble our efforts to make sure that all New Yorkers have access to good food and good jobs, particularly as this progress is being threatened by Walmart‘s attempt to open stores throughout the five boroughs. With their record of shuttering small businesses, destroying more jobs than they create, paying poverty wages, violating their workers’ rights and endangering our environment, it’s clear that New Yorkers, working together, can come up with solutions to food deserts and build a more sustainable food system without Walmart.
