Six months ago, public life in New York City shut down due to spreading COVID-19 infection, profoundly disrupting how New Yorkers shop, eat and avoid food insecurity. What have these experiences taught the city about emergency preparedness, healthy diets, and lasting solutions to the most serious food problems? What can New York City do now to prevent further damage to its food system?
To answer these questions, food policy centers we direct at CUNY, Hunter College and Teachers College collaborated to assess the response of New York City government, nonprofits, and food businesses to the pandemic. Our report “NY Food 20/20: Food Systems During COVID-19 and Beyond,” released later this week at nyfood2020.org. is the first independent assessment of this effort. To prepare the report, we conducted public opinion polls; interviewed residents, public officials, and frontline workers in food pantries and city agencies; reviewed public and media reports; and observed public meetings on food issues related to the pandemic.
After the number of city residents who reported not getting enough food increased from 1.2 million people in 2019 to 2 million by May 2020, city agencies and nonprofit anti-hunger organizations launched massive efforts to expand emergency meal distribution. By late August, these new programs had served more than 200 million meals, an impressive accomplishment.
The pandemic interrupted some food supply chains and many food stores closed, but the city’s retail supermarkets and grocery stores re-organized for customer and employee safety and to fill the gap caused by restaurant closures.
Most New Yorkers still had food. According to our poll, 50% of New Yorkers actually reported eating healthier, probably through cooking more at home. Food workers, long one of the most poorly paid workforce sectors, earned new respect as essential workers, who enabled New Yorkers to feed their families.
But the pandemic also illuminated and exacerbated persistent food problems. More than a third of the city’s food pantries closed, disproportionately affecting underserved and hard-hit communities. And while most grocery stores are now open for business, many smaller businesses, especially those operated by people of color, immigrants, and women struggled and may be forced to close permanently. The restaurant sector has been devastated and it’s uncertain whether the current limited services they can offer are sufficient for small restaurants to survive. Thousands of unemployed restaurant workers face food insecurity and eviction.
As an important first step, the mayor appointed a “food czar” in March. However, despite the herculean effort to distribute emergency meals, food insecurity increased and has stayed high. New York City officials still don’t know how many food-insecure households are being helped by the new programs and how many are missed. As federal, state and city officials squabble about budget cuts, some emergency measures enacted during the pandemic will expire, even as economic and food insecurity persist. Moreover, the pandemic highlights that despite lessons from Superstorm Sandy and the 2008 fiscal crisis, New York City still lacks a ready-to-go emergency food plan that can prevent New Yorkers from going hungry and quickly re-establish the city’s food infrastructure during a crisis.
Most importantly, COVID-19 spotlighted a deeply inequitable food system — where middle-class and wealthy New Yorkers have consistent access to healthy affordable food while low-income, Black and Brown and immigrant households do not. These communities experience higher rates of food insecurity and diet-related diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, and now COVID-19 as well. Inequitable access to healthy food is a key driver of New York’s race-based health inequities, premature deaths, and preventable illnesses.
As the next wave of the pandemic looms, we could make a lasting commitment to the city by using the lessons from COVID-19 to dismantle the food apartheid which leaves so many New Yorkers without access to food they need to stay healthy.
Several policy changes can help New York City to build back better its food system. The city should expand economic stimulus support, focusing on small, independent food businesses owned by women, people of color and immigrants. It should facilitate and promote enrollment in SNAP, helping to ease food insecurity while stimulating local economic development. Emergency, school and other institutional food programs can provide healthier, less highly processed food, helping to close income and racial gaps in diet quality. Public benefits for workers should be expanded to cover all low wage food workers and the city should create a comprehensive plan to improve conditions for food workers. Finally, in the coming years, New York must develop a plan to end hunger and food insecurity in our city, surely an attainable goal for the wealthiest city in the world.
Freudenberg is distinguished professor and director, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, CUNY School of Public Health. Koch is executive director and associate research professor, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education and Policy, Teachers College. Platkin is executive director, Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and distinguished lecturer, Hunter College.
