Courting Supermarkets, City Turns to Pennsylvania Precedent

In the fight to woo new groceries to underserved neighborhoods, New York will likely model policies on Pennsylvania’s $120 million Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which has attracted 50 food stores to the state since 2004, and was recently cited among the top 50 public programs in the nation by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Business. The initiative offers a combination of financial incentives, including tax credits, state funding and private grants, for supermarkets that serve fresh food in low-income areas. The state’s interest in the Pennsylvania program follows a sharp drop in the number of city supermarkets over the past six years: a trend that state officials hope to rectify, while improving on current methods for food retail development. Previous city projects include a joint venture with the East Harlem Abyssinian Triangle and the Abyssinian Development Corporation that brought Pathmark to 125^th street in 1999, and with it, nearly two hundred new jobs for neighborhood residents. Said New York State Agriculture Commisioner Patrick Hooker at a recent listening session of the State Board of Food Policy, “I think we’re on a track that will lead to better food access in lower-income communities. We’re familiar with [the effort in] Pennsylvania. I’m looking forward to moving ahead with that.”