Why is it important to talk to ‘FOOD’ in NYC?

This conversation is part of my thinking process while working on a research paper for my graduating semester at The New School, Masters in Nonprofit Management. More to that as days go.

Why do you want to talk about FOOD in NYC?

So as always this is the story…

Coming to New York City two years back, I spent an year and a half, through COVID, at the intersection of Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhoods. Now I live in a neighborhood between South and Central Harlem for the past 8 months.

Culturally, leaving my millennial thirst to eat-out, I come from a South India family in Kerala which rarely go outside of home to eat. Also, we try to grow as much vegetables/produces as we can at our front/backyard.

I remember getting packed milk only when we had an uninvited guest, because milk comes from the local family who owns a bunch of cows, same way the eggs too. You get some basics from the yard and back there you feel the ‘soil’ more often than concrete walkways.

My valiant efforts to do urban gardening in our Brooklyn backyard was met with what seemed to be ‘dirt’ than soil and also the sheer cost of buying garden soil and setting up bed.

However, we used to get fresh green and some culturally appropriate food, thanks to the Bangladeshi stores, in a walking distance. We could get apples, spinach and somethings organic just under 2 mins. There where shops other than the ones around the subway stations, which was 7mins, 10mins and 14mins.

Harlem’s experience initially was the search for getting fresh groceries other than from the Wholefoods in 125th. You may ask why not Wholefoods and that’s a subject for a whole lot of conversation! What ended up happening was more eat outs and takeouts during those initial days.

In the process we found a Fine Fare and a C-Town near 116th subway stations. But, the real light came through our dear friend Aniya aka Anna Milyaeva. She introduced us to the program GoHealthy and their weekly Food Boxes.

More of that in the next conversation! But I must say I started eating GREEN and learned a lot of new interesting names!!

Romanesco, Leeks (yea I have not heard of it before), Bosc Pears, Cippolini Onions and a few more to name.