Fresh Bodegas
GrowNYC and Red Jacket Orchards have joined forces to create Fresh Bodegas, making regular deliveries of produce and products from the Wholesale Greenmarket and Red Jacket’s farm in the Finger Lakes region of New York to 11 bodegas in Central Harlem and Bedford Stuyvesant, two areas of the city with particularly limited access to fresh produce.
Fresh Bodegas will build the infrastructure to provide New York City residents with access to affordably priced, locally grown produce at the stores where they already shop. The installation of refrigerators featuring exclusively farm fresh products in participating stores will expand the floor space designated for healthy foods and maximize the display of local products. The refrigerators will be branded by Greenmarket and Red Jacket Orchards to endorse a healthier option alongside the coolers put in place by corporations who sell soft drinks, alcohol, and junk food in highly-trafficked neighborhood shops.
In addition to providing refrigeration, the project aims to educate shop owners on food handling and sustainable agriculture, ever strengthening the connection between upstate producers and our city’s many consumers. Hopefully the success of this pilot distribution route will allow the Fresh Bodegas project to expand to more neighborhoods where under-resourced bodegas are calling for fresh, local produce.
Since January 2006, the NYC Health Department’s Healthy Bodegas Initiative has worked with more than 1,000 bodegas in East and Central Harlem, the South Bronx, and Central Brooklyn to increase access to healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, low-fat milk and dairy products, and low-salt and no-sugar-added canned goods.