Once officially classified a “food desert,” Brownsville now has plenty of fresh produce, but that doesn’t mean that residents are eating their fruits and vegetables.
A 2008 study from the NYC Health Department revealed that Brownsville has some of the City’s highest rates of obesity and diabetes. The neighborhood’s supermarkets did not meet the city planning standard ratio of 30,000 square-feet per 10,000 people. And of the residents studied, 14 percent to 26 percent reported not having eaten fruits or vegetables the day before.
Since then community activists and city initiatives have been bringing healthy foods to Brownsville and encouraging residents to buy them. The City’s Healthy Supermarkets program redesigned several supermarkets’ produce sections, which are now stocked with local produce. Two farmers markets and fruit stands have been opened, and a handful of bodegas have been improved to carry healthy foods.
Some residents are putting down the potato chips and picking up greens, but several supermarket owners said fruits and vegetables still sell poorly.
“We’re informing a lot of people about food,” said Brian Goldblatt, a coordinator of Brownsville’s Youth Green Market. “We get a lot of reluctant customers because they don’t know what to do with it.”
At the Youth Market on Livonia and Rockaway, residents can buy fresh apples and collard greens at warehouse prices. The program, created by Green Market and the Brownsville Partnership, came to Brownsville last summer after the success of a stand in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant. Youth market accomplishes two goals at once by making healthy food accessible to low income communities and educating local youth about food.
“I’ve eaten more apples while working here than I did in my lifetime,” said James Tolan, one of the teenagers working at the market. “I go home now and eat smarter.”
The program became so popular with residents that a second day a week was added to the market schedule this season. Since the market started educating residents about how to prepare fresh vegetables, many have started warming up to the greens, Goldblatt said.
“Seniors know how to cook, but their children have little connection with food,” he said. “I’m nearly sold out of collard greens now. A month ago we didn’t have those results.”
Weekend produce shoppers can also frequent the Brownsville Community Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. The market began as a single stand, but has since blossomed into an active market. When both markets close for the season at the end of the month, local produce will still be available at a few bodegas that agreed to sell the Youth Market’s vegetables.
Farmer’s markets are changing the way some residents think about food, but supermarkets are also influencing shoppers’ decisions to buy healthy products. Last year the city’s health department started a Healthy Supermarkets initiative that assisted grocery stores in sprucing up their produce departments. Three grocery stores in Brownsville benefited from the program.
“The stores we’ve worked with in Brownsville have been receptive to our program and have committed to working toward higher quality produce departments for their neighborhood,” a spokesperson from the NYC Health department told The Brooklyn Ink.
A few months ago a representative from the city reorganized the produce department at Key Foods on Belmont. Over the course of four days, more attractive signs were given to the fruits and vegetables and produce was shifted around to make the section more aesthetically appealing. A line of local vegetables was added to the mix, and the grocery store started cutting up fruit before packaging it.
“The watermelon sells better when cut,” said Antonia Rodriguez, who works in Key Food’s produce department. “The produce looks healthier, better.”
But residents are still wary of the locally grown goods, some of which can look less than appealing, Rodriguez said. Even with the changes, the owner of Key Foods, Joel Brodsky, said he doesn’t sell very much produce.
“I can’t give it away,” he said. “I can’t buy mushrooms and asparagus.”
The problem isn’t the price. Brodsky said he charges much less than the normal markup, which is 50 to 60 percent. As a storeowner he must stay competitive with several other supermarkets in the area, and it is these low prices that make fresh food a tangible reality for Brownsville residents, Brodsky said.
People’s Choice, a food warehouse, has some of the lowest prices in the area. Storeowner Jim Kahn said he wouldn’t be able to stay in business if he continued carrying healthy items. Over the years he’s tried to incorporate a number of low-fat and low-sodium products, but too many times he’s had to throw out spoiled foods like yogurt, skim milk and vegetables.
“You want to give customers what’s in their best interest,” he said. “But if you start discarding you will be out of business. We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
The Food Bazaar supermarket in Brownsville recently received funding for expansion from the city’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) initiative.
Food Bazaar’s current produce selection is the largest in Brownsville and the store sells $100,000 worth of produce sales weekly. Produce accounts for 13 to 14 percent of total purchases at the market, which is five to seven percentage points lower than at the Food Bazaar in Queens, according to John Park, the store’s manager. He believes the difference is ethnically driven because the other store is in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood.
“Hispanics eat more fresh fruit and vegetables,” he said. “Vegetables in Brownsville are moving good, but fruit is hard. Only if they have money will residents buy fruit.”
But many Brownsville residents are conscious about what goes on the dinner table and appreciate the community’s efforts to bring more choices to the area. They would still like to see more done.
“We have a daughter so we get a lot of fruits for her,” Byron Reed said. “But the quality isn’t always great around here. You can go to Flatbush and they have veggie stands everywhere.”
Minister Kevin Barlow is a self-described “health nut,” but believes only 20 percent of residents care about their food choices. Food is available and affordable, but the community needs more education, he said.
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