Eating Healthy in Arbor Hill
Life in a food desert in Albany means the long, expensive walk for healthy food.
Growing up in Oakland, CA, an impoverished predominantly black city with little to no grocery stores, eating anything but junk food was abnormal. When I was in the fifth grade, I would walk to corner store on Martin Luther King Boulevard and buy the two-for-one dollar bags of Flaming Hot Cheetos, along with a 50-cent blue juice almost every day. It was ritual.
Now, living as an adult living in Albany, the same eating habits persist. In fact, if it weren’t for my wife, I would have no boundaries when it came to eating. I love eating take-out, whether it’s at Jamaican restaurants, fast food places or a pizzeria. Kenneth’s Taste bud on Henry Johnson has the best Fish Fry in Albany. I have mine with cheese, tarter and extra hot sauce!
Both Oakland and Arbor Hill are plagued with poverty and it is no coincidence that they both deal with similar issues of access to fresh foods and overwhelmed by fast foods. Access to fast food definitely isn’t a stretch living in the Arbor Hill section of Albany, NY, an impoverished Black and Latino neighborhood. Nearly half of all residents in the Arbor Hill community, which lies just north of the capitol, live below the poverty line. Because of this, access to a grocery store is a stretch.
I live in what’s called “food desert,” defined by the American Nutrition Association as an urban area that lacks fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful food.
I usually just settle for take-out or fast food because there is no shortage of those places here.
That’s because Arbor Hill, in addition to being a food desert, also qualifies as a “food swamp,” an area where unhealthy foods are more readily available than healthy foods. Though access to processed meals and fast foods that are dense in calories and high in sodium and sugar is relatively easy, living a healthy diet lifestyle is next to impossible or at least a huge struggle for residents of Arbor Hill.
Whether Arbor Hill is classified as a “desert” or a “swamp,” one thing that is certain: it takes a great effort to buy and consume fresh groceries.
I am not alone. I live in one of the 12,000 households in the Capital Region that according to the Times Union, live in food desserts. Lack of access to fresh food often leads to obesity. They also say many shoppers replace fresh fruits and vegetables with fast food, because it is easier to find. However, people are trying to change that, both on a local and federal level. In 2010, President Obama pledged nearly $400 million in grants, loans, and credits towards addressing the nation’s lack of access to fresh food problems. Organizations in Albany’s South End neighborhood just below the capital plaza, just received federal funding from HFFI (Healthy Food Financing Funds), part of President Obama’s proposal which supports projects that increase access to healthy, affordable food. The area is frequented by the “Veggie-Mobile,” a truck that delivers fresh produce. Steuben Street Market also just opened its doors to those willing to make a few blocks walk towards downtown.
The grants and funds seemed to have either missed or not made it to Arbor Hill just yet. This doesn’t seem like a coincidence the way that Arbor Hill is sectioned off from the rest of the city. It is bordered by the Hudson River to the east, Interstate 90 to the north, Henry Johnson Boulevard to the west, and Central Avenue to the south.
The difference between the Arbor Hill side of Lark and the Washington Park district side separated by Central Avenue is night and day.
One side is riddled with corner stores, abandoned homes, and store clerks selling illegal loosie cigarettes, while the other has many yuppie bars, neoliberal shops, and overpriced restaurants. The streets in Arbor Hill are full of pot-holes while just across Washington the streets are lined with cobblestone. The socio-economical implications of this geography lend to the fact that eating well or just not healthy in Arbor Hill is a huge struggle.
But just how hard are we talking? Is it really that hard to eat healthy food in a food desert or swamp? What’s the big deal about living in a food desert or swamp? Could low socio-economic status be linked to eating habits?
To find out, I decided to dive into the shoes of a person who would like to live a healthy lifestyle by good eating habits and consuming only fresh foods. For four days, I decided to only consume fresh fruits, vegetables, and meals that not processed too high in sugar, fats, or other harmful ingredients.
I started on Monday morning and I was about to eat the most important meal of the day: breakfast. I peeked into my refrigerator and saw that I had a couple containers of yogurt, some granola and a loaf of bread. I tossed a couple of scoops of granola into the yogurt. Upon leaving the house, I realized if I was going to go another three days of eating healthy, I better do some grocery shopping.
That evening, when returned home after a long day, I opened my refrigerator. I considered going to the Price Chopper a grocery store between Center Square and Washington park neighborhoods, but it is approximately a mile and a half walk down and then back up a hill. To make matters worse, public transportation in Arbor Hill is almost nonexistent. The two buses that travel in Arbor Hill take a roundabout route and do not travel directly through the heart of the neighborhood. Residents of the neighborhood are left to walking and taking taxis if they do not own a vehicle. A walk that takes about 50 minutes round trip, possibly longer on the way back because I would be lugging grocery. A trip like this one is not very appealing to those who do not have the resources to complete it, especially following a long day of work. This phenomenon is typical of a food desert as opposed to other neighborhoods that have fresh markets and grocery stores within arm’s reach.
The option I would normally choose would be to take the five-minute walk around the corner to Roy’s Caribbean food and pick up some not-so-healthy fried chicken wings and oxtails. But I got off the hook, peered back into the fridge, I saw that had some boneless chicken breast and some russet potatoes. So I had a baked potato and a sautéed breast of Italian chicken, a better option for my health than the fast food. Plus my wife pressured me to eat at home and not go out.
Another major problem that comes to mind is the issue of being able to come up inexpensive and healthy meals to consume. My wife’s mother educated her at an early age about good eating habits. Though she is also from the San Francisco Bay Area, she grew up in San Jose, a city that has many more grocery stores and markets than Oakland. If it weren’t for her, I would struggle with the healthy part of this equation. I wonder what their knowledge and access to nutrition information is like. I would soon find out.
The next day, I decided that I had just enough energy and motivation to make the trek to Price Chopper, which was the closest grocery store to my apartment. So I started my walk down Lark Street towards the grocery store which is on Delaware avenue. When I got there, I pulled out a brief grocery list which my wife had made the night before. On it was: ground turkey, whole grain rice, whole grain spaghetti, onions, alfredo sauce, carrots, green beans, bananas and 12 dozen eggs.
Having a single income household isn’t the most practical when the prices of grocery have sky-rocketed in recent years because of inflation. The minimum wage has remained the same while the cost of living has risen. This could be another factor in the obesity epidemic of the community being as though fifty percent of the residents of Arbor Hill live below the federal poverty line. I spent almost $80 on just these few items. The other factor is the fact that with only one set of hands, I can only carry so much grocery. As I started on my way back up the hill towards home, I gazed at my cell phone realizing that it was already 10:30 a.m. and I was going to be late for work. So I walked as fast as I could up the very steep Lark street hill dropped the food off and left promptly for work.
When I got home at about 7:30 p.m, I was very exhausted. Even something like going to the grocery store early in the morning added more strain to my already long day. Luckily, I didn’t have to cook. My wife cooked chicken Alfredo with steamed carrots and toast.
On the third day of my experiment, I woke up early enough to be able to eat breakfast. I made pancakes! Not traditional pancakes, but pancakes from scratch with bananas and eggs with only honey and raspberries as a topping. It was my first time making and eating these, but they turned out very good and I was pleased with my first meal of the day. If I had no woken up early enough to make myself breakfast, I would have had to either go without it, or pick something up on my way to work. Walking to work, the only place to eat is McDonald’s, which definitely isn’t a top health pick. There are no healthy cafes, inexpensive eateries or places to grab a quick bite walking down from Arbor Hill towards the South End (where I work).
On my way to work, I ran into Savonja, one of my former employees, who lives in Arbor Hill. I decided to ask her a few questions about her experience of eating well and consuming fast foods while living in Arbor Hill.
“I usually only do one big trip a month,” she said, as she struggled to carry over 10 bags.
To spend money on grocery and then have to pay another $13 just to take a taxi a mile home is ridiculous.
I could relate, I dread the hike up and down Lark Street. She went on to explain how she pays nearly $13 for a single fare one way in a taxi, and I thought to myself “sheesh!” I asked Savonja how much money she usually spent of grocery. She said about $250 was average. Obtaining grocery is a very tedious task for someone like herself with very few resources such as transportation and help. For people like Savonja and myself, grocery shopping can become so tedious that it deters us from doing it as often. And so families settle for take-out or fast food.
My wife was out of town that evening, so for dinner, I had to navigate my own healthy meal. Being as though I only get what she tells me when grocery shopping, I always end up with a hell of a lot of turkey. I made some ground turkey spaghetti with light sauce.
The Bigger Issue
On my last day, I ate an apple and a couple slices of toast for breakfast with a glass of orange juice. I came home for lunch and fixed a turkey sandwich with olive oil and light mayo. It was great, but in my mind, I was fantasizing about a slice of chicken bacon ranch pizza.
Towards the end of my workday, I begun to contemplate what I was going to eat for dinner, I thought about what I had left in my refrigerator, and began creating options in my head, but had a lot of trouble as the meals in my head didn’t match up with the items I had at home. It seemed that because I was only able to grab a few items when I went to the store that I wasn’t able to gather other items needed for subsequent meals. So I took the easy way out, and gave into my urge for a high calorie, high fat, greasy, cheesy slice of chicken bacon ranch pizza. I actually got an extra slice for later.
I realized eating healthy in Arbor Hill was more than just the lack of access to grocery stores, but was also a problem with lack of proper education and information about making healthy food choices. Because neighborhoods like Arbor Hill are bombarded with take out and fast food places, people who live there gravitate to these places. This also creates a cycle of generational unhealthy practice. Children are brought up on unhealthy foods and then grow up and do the same with their families. Researchers from the Institute for Health have found people from lower socio-economic backgrounds often chose unhealthy foods that they were familiar with as opposed to fresh and healthy meals. They did a study and found people didn’t want to risk losing money trying new or foreign meals.
It occurred to me that residents in Arbor Hill like me had become so accustomed to eating poorly or eating fats or processed food, that when it came to preparing healthy meals my options were limited. There was no creativity or ideas flowing about the possibilities of preparing healthy dishes. Just a whole lot of turkey I had no idea what to make of the few items I had in my refrigerator, and subsequently, I settle for pizza when my wife isn’t around. So I can only imagine how hard it is for those who have even less grocery to work with or those who have to make the 30-minute walk just to get a few things to make for their families at dinner time.
Workshops, grocery stores and markets would all be very beneficial to impoverished neighborhoods such as Arbor Hill. It would help eliminate the problems of uneducated eating habits, financial budgeting as well as take steps towards reducing obesity. By doing these things, swamps, deserts, and poverty would be reduced greatly. Even adding a bus line to travel up and down Lark Street in Arbor Hill would be beneficial.
My suggestion to city leaders and officials is to break down those barriers and allow Arbor Hill the same economic feasibility as areas such as Pine Hills and other better off communities.