On Wednesday, May 28, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz stood on the steps of City Hall with United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1500, elected officials and food advocates to draw attention to New York City’s dwindling number of supermarkets and associated job losses, and to call for a stronger citywide food policy that keeps existing outlets in the five boroughs while attracting new stores. 

BP Markowitz also announced that the Borough President’s Office will be convening leaders of the industry to discuss their needs and concerns, and will work with colleagues in government, including the Mayor’s Food Policy Coordinator, to find innovative ways of alleviating the crisis. Possible solutions could include, but are not limited to: tax breaks, a sales tax waiver on supermarket items, creative zoning incentives and legislation that provides financing and other assistance to struggling supermarkets.

“We simply must create new incentives that put supermarkets on the same level playing field as drug store chains that receive Medicare and Medicaid subsidies for their pharmacies, or banks, which are often supplemented by economic development block grants,” said Borough President Markowitz.

Especially hard hit by the shortage of supermarkets are New York’s seniors and residents in working class and lower-income areas, where there is limited or no access to supermarkets, grocery stores and food delivery services. Recently, Key Food announced it was closing its store on Third Avenue and 95th Street in Bay Ridge, and there are ongoing efforts to save a Key Food in the Soundview section of the South Bronx.

According to a Department of City Planning report, 3 million New Yorkers live in “high need” neighborhoods with a lack of supermarkets but higher rates of health problems. In those areas, 750,000 residents live more than five blocks from a grocery store, meaning they have limited access to affordable and healthy produce and groceries. The study found that the City has lost a third of its supermarkets over the past five years, but could accommodate 100 new stores.

“This is not only a major quality of life issue, but a public health issue,” said Borough President Markowitz. “Food is an elemental need—and when a neighborhood is starved of basics such as nearby supermarkets and groceries, that neighborhood can become as weak as a human body without nourishment.”