Marta Tanenbaum lives in Brooklyn between Prospect Place and Buffalo Avenue and has to walk 15 minutes with her granny cart to shop at the Associated Supermarkets.
“The quality of the fresh food at this supermarket is not good,” said Tanenbaum. “So I have to shop at four different places. It takes me the whole day.”
One might think that in New York City there are supermarkets everywhere, but in Weeksville, Brooklyn there is one supermarket for every 25 bodegas, according to Data2go.NYC, a data tool created by the nonprofit Measure of America of the Social Science Research Council. In contrast, the Upper West Side has one supermarket for every three bodegas. Many Weeksville inhabitants struggle to purchase healthy food.
Weeksville is located Eastern Crown Heights between Troy Avenue and Ralph Avenue. For 46,503 inhabitants there are only two supermarkets: the Associated Supermarkets and Food Bazaar.
Weeksville is a low-income neighborhood. The median household income is $35,000 according to the United States Census Bureau—placing it $41,000 below the NYC median household income of $76,000. According to Tanenbaum, the socio-economic background of the neighborhood disadvantages them in food access.
“Because we are a low-income neighborhood, we get bad food,” she said. “I think the best food goes to the richest neighborhoods first and comes last to us.”
The lack of supermarkets is not the only problem, but also the shortage of quality fresh produce in these supermarkets.
“The vegetables and fruits are often spoiled after I come home,” said Tanenbaum. “The apples are mushy.”
Stand of apples at the Associated Supermarkets. (Credit: Apolline Lamy)
To address this issue, Weeksville residents sometimes leave the neighborhood to shop.
“I wait for my son’s car to do groceries. But it’s not that often,” she said. “Then I can have good products.”
Tanenbaum and other inhabitants also highlighted the quality and diversity of products at Trader Joe’s.
However, looking at the distribution of Trader Joe’s in New York City, they are located in high-income neighborhoods. Fort Greene, Brooklyn Heights and Williamsburg all have Trader Joe’s, but no other neighborhood in Brooklyn does. These three neighborhoods have median household incomes above $80,000, according to the United States Census Bureau.
The Weeksville Heritage Center is aware of the problem of the food accessibility in the neighborhood and created a farmers market to help address this issue. Weeksville residents could purchase fresh produce at the market.
However, the farmers’ market operates only one day a month and not all residents can make it then. On Oct. 19, just 100 people were at the farmers market.
The Farmers Market of Weeksville Heritage Center. (Credit:
Apolline Lamy)
The lack of healthy food in the neighborhood can have direct consequences on the residents’ health.
Shawn Joseph, 28, had experienced health issues after buying too much food from his local supermarket. “For my yearly checkup, my sugar levels were way too high for my age,” said Joseph.“I was about to be diabetic.”
His daily diet consisted of frozen White Castle Burgers and Red Lobster cheddar biscuits.
“I know it was unhealthy, but again, that was the only option they had,” said Joseph. “I’m working two jobs; I don’t have the time to cook something from scratch.
One year ago, Joseph used to buy prepared food from his local supermarket.
“At the Food Bazaar here, they don’t have fresh, easy-to-cook options, so I drive to Trader Joe’s which is four miles away,” said Joseph, a visitor services representative at the Weeksville Heritage Center.
According to Joseph, one of the solutions could be food education.
“If people don’t have health education, and don’t know why it’s important to get fresh food, then they won’t know how to use the fresh produce from the farmers market,” said Joseph.
The topic is a more complex problem than simply food education, according to Alice Reznikova, who is an associate teaching professor in food policy at the University of Colorado.
A focus on education can “overshadow” the fact that “a lot of people in this country are poor and need higher wages.”
“Knowledge and education is a tiny part of the problem, but it is used as a cop out,” said Reznikova.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify Weeksville’s location.
