Food Deserts

LONG ISLAND’S ‘FOOD APARTHEID’

By Sarah Emily Baum When Vee, a sophomore Hofstra University student, came to the United States from overseas, she was excited to live on her own. In between classes, she would get what she needed from the campus and the surrounding town. She could get her textbooks from the campus bookstore and breakfast, lunch and dinner from the on-campus eateries. It was all just a short walk from her dorm. Doctors told Vee, who asked that her last name not be used, that she had a serious medical condition, and the solution was to change her diet. Suddenly, Hofstra’s dining options weren’t sustainable. She wanted to buy healthy foods from the supermarket, but none were in walking distance. Like 4,000 other Hempstead residents, Vee doesn’t have a car. “It feels like there’s nowhere near where I live that is accessible and affordable for me to get the food I need,” Vee said. “It’s scary because it’s not just an issue of money, but an issue of just having a store close enough.” Vee lives in Hempstead — one of 13 census tracts that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has classified as food deserts in Nassau County. These are defined as “low-income tracts in which a substantial number or proportion of the population has low access to supermarkets or large grocery stores.” Across Long Island, food deserts disproportionately impact low-income families and communities of color. According to Long Island Cares, the region’s largest food bank, 1 in 4 Long Islanders struggle with food insecurity; 70% of those come from BIPOC populations. Food deserts encompass 67,500 people in Nassau County and 310,683 people in Suffolk, according to recent government reports. Food deserts occur because major grocery chains are less likely to put stores in low-income areas, said Paul Pachter, CEO of Long Island Cares. “Supermarkets are not spread equally,” he said. “These decisions are made more based upon economics than on humanitarian beliefs that people should have access to all this fresh food.” To fill this gap, many communities evolve

into what experts call “food swamps” — areas over-saturated with unhealthy food options, such as fast food chains. As a result, many communities of color will also disproportionately face health issues like diabetes, heart disease and obesity, according to the National Institutes of Health. “If you really want to address a person’s need for comprehensive food support, you’re going to have to have a major supermarket in the community,” Pachter said. He emphasized the impact of decades of redlining and segregation, which created pockets of low-income neighborhoods. These divides are especially defined in Long Island, dubbed “one of the most segregated suburbs in America” by Newsday. This divide dates back to the 17th and 18th centuries, when there were slaves on Long Island. Twentieth-century discriminatory housing policies barred Black people from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods like Levittown. Dr. Angela Odoms-Young, associate professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell University and director of the Food and Nutrition Education in Communities Program, compared the racialized disparity in food access to apartheid. “Food is power,” said Odoms-Young. “If you’re looking at controlling people, one way to do it is their ability to access food, acquire food, grow food. All of that is rooted in the history of oppression of people.” Odoms-Young said the solution is multilayered. Policy-makers need to address the needs of consumers and families, through funding social welfare initiatives like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Supermarket and healthy food businesses need to have tax incentives to open up in low-income areas. Farmers in communities of color need to be empowered to supply their communities with independent, thriving food ecosystems outside of corporate interests. “People should have the right to define their own food and control the economy as it relates to their food,” Odoms-Young said. “We need food sovereignty — a food system that is focuPhoto courtesy Adobe Stock sed on the local community, where the people are able to have power.”