Food Insecurity in African American Communities and What New York City is Doing to Bridge the Gap

It’s a sunny, Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn, New York, and Andrew has begun the process of germinating his vegetable and fruit seeds for this year’s harvest. The sun beams down as he begins separating his seeds by light and water needs. His gardening space? Like most New Yorkers, Andrew lacked a yard or allotment. So he got creative and turned his apartment’s rooftop into his own fresh produce oasis.

Six medium-sized, makeshift wooden beds, filled to the brim with fresh soil, are placed in a square in the center. Terracotta planter pots are spaced roughly 12 inches apart around the roof’s perimeter as the new homes for various herbs. “I started gardening when I moved out on my own because I couldn’t afford fresh produce,” said Andrew, who wouldn’t give his last name due to visa implications. “This way, I can learn and save money.”

Andrew had a similar story to countless other African-Americans living in New York City. His predominantly Black neighborhood lacks a variety of grocery stores selling fresh produce. The ones that do are smaller bodegas and produce stands, often charging double the amount, making them unaffordable for most.. “Fresh produce is insanely expensive and I realize now why my parents didn’t buy much of it. We couldn’t afford it,” he said. His family isn’t alone either.According to a report from the Fiscal Policy Institute, New York State has the highest degree of income inequality in the country, and 63% of African-American families living here are in the bottom half of that income bracket. Researchers at Feeding America, America’s largest hunger relief organization, attributed low income as one of many factors contributing to food insecurity within the African-American community to include a lack of grocery stores in “urban areas”. During the pandemic the number of food insecure families in this community skyrocketed to 24% in 2020.

During an interview with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, a press representative cited that in their November 2021 EPI Data Brief, publications that highlight data findings from varying Health Department programs and projects, African American families were 79% more likely to perceive major increases in food prices. The report also said these families reported an increasing inability to pay for food from April 2020 to October 2020 due to a lack of income.

With inflation rising to a 40-year high and jumping a staggering 7.9% within the last year, it’s no surprise these price increases hit lower-income consumers the hardest. The result? Thousands of families on fixed incomes experiencing even tighter budgets than before, leaving them with tough choices to make on necessities. Anthony Knight, founder of Facebook’s largest community for African American farmers, Black Owned Farms, shared in an interview, “I’ve been working with agriculture for over two decades and during the pandemic our group members grew from 100,000 to over 277,000 members in a little under a year. Everyone had the same questions. How can I cut costs and still feed my family quality food during this tough time,” shared Knight.

For the African-American community, the challenge, which carries a long history of systemic inequality, is unparalleled. Now, cities like New York are figuring out ways to address the problem. But is it enough?

The History Behind the Gap in Food Access

In her debut novel, Freedoms Farmers, Dr. Monica M. White expands on the history of farming and its relationship to the African American community. While some historians deem agriculture work as a symbol of oppression for the African American community, Freedom Farmers reveals agriculture to be a powerful sign of resistance and freedom for the community. Dr. White wrote, “This book documents forms of resistance by which Black farmers and how they fought for the right to participate in the food system and earn a living wage in agriculture.”

Many African cultures hold food as a central and sacred form of celebration and expression. After being forcibly brought to America as slaves, many herbs and spices essential to African cuisine were no longer accessible. With no permission to grow on the land where they worked, they were allotted no access to whole and healthy food choices.

“We had to get creative with scraps we were given and the food we created, while delicious, is extremely unhealthy for us,” said Anthony Knight. “It’s important for more Black people to educate themselves on farming so that we can better our health as a whole community by feeding our bodies with the right foods.”

African-American families living in the Southern states in the early 1900s relied heavily on sharecropping to earn income for their families. As a result of wage discrimination, many lacked the funding to purchase reasonable amounts of food to feed their families. According to an article from History.com, during the Great Depression, as the price of cotton and other agricultural products decreased, farm owners paid their workers less and eventually laid them off. In major cities, jobs that were once deemed only acceptable for African Americans, such as janitors, housekeepers and nannies, were now competitive and, therefore, going to more white people. By 1932, roughly one half of all African Americans in the United states were unemployed. This left more hungry families than ever before.

In 1969, the Black Panther Party established the Free Breakfast Program under the leadership of founders Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton as a show of resistance to government need. The program delivered free food donated from local grocery stores and purchased through donations, to single mothers in need and their children. They donated universal food items, such as bread, milk, cereal and baby formula.

The United States government enacted a similar program for needy families across the country around 1972 and eventually developed into what is now the WIC program. While it is heavily debated, many credit the Black Panther Party as the founders of the WIC program as it offered the same benefits — just under a different name. “This organization played a critical role in the overall changing of the lifestyle and image of the African American in the United States,” wrote Dr. Monica M. White, in her 1998 dissertation and analysis of the Black Panther Party. “From food to education and economics, this group sparked change in an entire race across the country.”

Like its predecessor, the SNAP program, the goal was for the WIC program to eliminate the food insecurity that underprivileged families experienced daily. However, due to racial biases, the Food Stamp Act of 1964 wasn’t much help to African American families. According to research by New Republic, strict requirements such as residency and years of employment prevented many African Americans from being eligible for food stamps.

Yet over the years, food-based programs have become more easily accessible for every American. Without liveable income and equal opportunity in areas such as education, corporate America and entrepreneurship, food insecurity might not be completely eliminated.

Self taught Brooklyn gardener Andrew shared his opinion. “Money aside, more black people need healthy food and gardening education. As he scooped garden soil from a large bag into a small pot she shared, “there are other obstacles in our way but we can start with the things we can quickly change, like food and use the resources offered to us.”

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Many major cities are doing their part to bridge the food gap for low income earners. New York City, for example, implemented its Fresh Connect program in 2009 in response to a citywide study highlighting the lack of neighborhood grocery stores in certain communities. That lack of stores was especially high in African American and Latino neighborhoods. However, without investing more money into predominantly African American public schools, creating liveable and equal pay, and generating more safe and affordable housing, it’s only temporarily halting an overflowing sea of crisis.

“I don’t live in New York but I visit friends there often and a lot of our group members live there and are running different food-based organizations. I know the city does great things but, from what I hear the little guys giving back are the ones making the most change,” shared Anthony Knight.

A City Doing Its Part

In 2020 the Census Bureau reported roughly 9 million African Americans, about a quarter of the population, receive food stamps each month. The poverty rate for African Americans in New York increased that year from 20% to 20.5%, due to millions of layoffs at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During an interview with Hanna Birkhead from the New York Department of Agriculture press office, she shared her perception as an employee of the state during the covid pandemic. “We knew before it happened that food access was going to be a major problem for all residents, especially the disabled and those living in low income areas,” she said.

She further shared that during the pandemic, New York City was quick to respond to the problem of food access by developing the Nourish New York program. “The state launched the program, and it provided $25 million in financial support to food banks and other emergency food providers to purchase NYS-made milk, yogurt, cheese, vegetables, fruit, meat, etc,” said Birkhead. The total investment in the program in 2020 was approximately $35 million, with food banks purchasing more than 21 million pounds of food, equivalent to 17.5 million meals, and impacting more than 4,100 farms.

In January 2022, after taking office as New York City’s new mayor, Eric Adams made it clear his stance on healthy eating and food accessibility for all. In an interview with the Guardian Mayor Adams stated, “Food is doing more of an injustice than mass incarceration,” he said. “They are both bad, but the number of lives we are losing from bad food are X times the number lost to mass incarceration.”

He also shared his thoughts via social media and tweeted, “every New Yorker should have access to healthy, plant-based food, and it’s encouraging to see community organizers stepping up to help meet those needs!

During past press conferences he placed emphasis on reducing food related illnesses and his commitment to reducing food injustice. He highlighted neighborhoods in the South Bronx where over 40% of the residents are African American and account for the highest poverty rates in the city. Prior to his family’s move to Jamaica Queens in 1968, Adams lived in a Bushwick housing project and was no stranger to poverty.

He began by signing two executive orders. The first, Executive order 8, created stricter guidelines on the meals served by various city agencies to include hospitals and city funded nursing homes. The second, Executive Order 9, requires all promotional materials regarding food and advertised on city property to feature healthy food, when applicable. Most notably, he implemented vegan lunches on Fridays in the country’s largest public school system in an attempt to expose inner city youth to healthier food choices.

“We look forward to working side-by-side with the Adams administration to create a better, healthier future for all New Yorkers.” Every New Yorker deserves to have access to fresh, nutritious food,” said Jilly Stephens, CEO of City Harvest. “We applaud Mayor Adams for his bold commitment to healthy eating in our city and are excited to see his executive orders go into effect.”

The city isn’t alone in its efforts, though. Nonprofit organizations and churches have helped to fill the gaps by offering variations of free food distribution to anyone in their neighborhood that needs it.

GrowNYC is one of the city’s largest environmental organizations; they help build community gardens, distribute fresh food boxes and offer free gardening and waste education. Mayor Adams appointed the organization as the official food policy transition team for his office. With more than 150 gardens citywide, the organization is working with public housing complexes and public schools to add gardens. (GrowNYC was reached out for comment; however, the author did not hear back. )

The Church of God of Salvation in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush holds a free food distribution drive every Thursday. Shoppers are allowed to pick from a variety of fruits, dairy products and vegetables distributed by church volunteers. One volunteer, Yvenka Lestin, shared her experience after volunteering at the church for a little over two years.

“I love volunteering because I like knowing I’m helping someone in need. People who want or need extra food can come here and get it.” While Lestin is fairly new to the church’s food drive, the church has been doing food distributions for over two decades. “There isn’t any paperwork or a million questions — just giving from the heart,” shared Lestin. The ease of access is what attracts many low income families; something that they might not experience with the government. Local businesses and organizations like these provide immediate satisfaction.

“I’ve been coming here every Thursday for the last 5 years to get food for my family,” shared Magdalina Perez, a 64-year-old grandmother of four. “I help my son raise my grandchildren and with me being retired, I need all the help I can get. Fresh food can be so expensive and I want to make sure my grandchildren have the best options available to them.”

Playground Coffee House in Bed-Stuy is using its influence in the community to serve more than just coffee. The business is home to a youth center, a radio station, and owns and operates several community fridges throughout the neighborhood and Harlem. Their community fridges offer fresh fruits and vegetables and dairy products including eggs, milk and cheese. The owner, 27-year-old Zenat Begum shared in an interview with Rally and Rise, “I’ve lived around New York my whole life so, I wanted to create a place of compassion in a place that felt like home to me.

Not Just Food

Shirlene Robinson, a participant in the Church of God of Salvation’s food drive knows all too well about food deserts. “I’ve lived in Harlem all my life and as a kid we’d have to travel outside of our area to get to a full-sized grocery store,” said Robinson. “When we did go, getting the groceries home without a car was a hassle.”

A bystander on our conversation chimed in with a similar story. “I have to go grocery shopping one to two times a week because I can’t carry everything I need home at once,” he said. “I’m disabled and constantly taking cabs back and forth adds up.”

In a report from CNBC, a lack of grocery stores moving into predominantly African American communities further limits the easy access to food. These stores also tend to mark up the prices of their products and have little to no healthy or fresh options available for shoppers. In New York City, where larger, full-sized grocery stores are uncommon compared to smaller, suburban cities, the problem is exacerbated, creating what researchers often call food deserts.

Residents there are forced to rely heavily on smaller grocery stores and miss out on the opportunity to purchase healthier options for themselves and their families.

Cecilia Hurtado, acting program coordinator for Playground Coffee shared, “from what we see with our community fridges, African Americans and Latinos are definitely at a higher risk for food insecurity. I live in a predominantly African American neighborhood and the lack of access to large grocery stores selling affordable, healthy products is very noticeable.”

According to that same report from CNBC, when companies do bring quality grocery stores to these areas, they sell products that residents can’t afford. “The grocery stores in my neighborhood sell the most awful products. Chips, candy, sugary and fattening sodas and processed frozen foods. The vegetables I do see aren’t of a good quality and are extremely overpriced,” said Mrs. Robinson.

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Income inequality for African Americans reached an all time high during the pandemic, and historical data shows that little progress has been made in reducing the economic gap between African American and White earners. In fact, the economic gap is equivalent to what it was in 1968. Researchers warn that if no major changes are made by federal and state governments to support members of the African American community, that gap will continue to grow.

Cecilia Hurtado shared, “this fight to end food insecurity isn’t an easy one and no one is expecting change overnight but, we are expecting the city to put forth more effort into funding smaller projects like ours and putting money directly into our communities in areas other than just food.”

While we can’t prevent history from repeating itself over night, we can build towards a better and equal future for marginalized communities. To everyone that has given from the kindness of their heart, even when they didn’t have much, your work is a small piece of a much larger puzzle that makes a difference in so many lives.

On what inspired her to volunteer, Yveneka shared, “If it’s one thing that I’ve learned in my time as a volunteer at the Church of God, it’s that none of us can win or survive this fight to end food insecurity alone. We have to make sure that we’re helping each other when we can because we never know when it could be one of us in need of the assistance.”