East New York Food Co-op:The growing pains of starting a community owned food store in an urban food desert

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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

3219.0: Monday, November 05, 2007 - 12:50 PM

Abstract #158369

East New York Food Co-op:The growing pains of starting a community owned food store in an urban food desert

Salima Jones-Daley¹, Laura Sanzel¹, Kimberly B. Morland, PhD², Richard Bordowitz, MD, MPH², Susan W. Filomena³, and Anjana Sharma, BA⁴. (1) Local Development Corporation of East New York, 80 Jamaica Avenue, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11207, 718-385-6700 x20, enyfpc@yahoo.com, (2) Dept of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1057, New York, NY 10029, (3) Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1043, New York, NY 10029, (4) Dept of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Mail Box 1043, New York, NY 10029-6574

The purpose of the East New York Food Co-op is to provide the choice to eat well, but learn from and recognize the struggle with the food habits the community's existing options have encouraged among residents. Through “Building Food Justice in East New York” non-profit organizations collaborate to start a business that requires public ownership to become sustainable and develop a nutritionally healthier neighborhood. The East New York Food Co-op is the first organized in NYC since the 1970s, and the first to be federally funded. Lessons learned and milestones achieved since opening in November 2006 exemplify how the food environment influences our diet and subsequently, our health. By describing the business plan and evaluating projections, we will demonstrate how non-profit partnerships can address restricted food environments. The Co-op's opening experience confirmed that effective education, and sound business management are priority activities that will convert occasional customers and passer-bys into members. Sustainability will require addressing local tastes by responding to customer requests for products such as callalloo, mango, and soy chunks. Finally we will demonstrate the feasibility studies, focus groups, and surveys positively indicate community residents are ready for more accessible, higher quality, affordable food. It is therefore appropriate that this Co-op, whose food base is organic/all natural foods, should become a neighbor to a “fried chicken joint,” which dominates the foodscape among other fast-food establishments. This project aims to change the foodscape of ENY and lessons learned will be shared for the enrichment of other food environments.

Learning Objectives:

1) Define a food co-operative.
2) Describe the priorities of a food co-operative.
3) Assess customer expectations of a food store.
4) Evaluate the impact of a community food store on the food choices made by members.
5) Avoid pitfalls of developing and managing a food business.
6) Assess the local food environment and the food needs of community residents.
7) Articulate the benefit of joining a food co-operative to potential members.

Keywords: Community Health, Food and Nutrition

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Community-based Approaches to Address Disparities in Food and Activity Environments (jointly-organized by the Food and Nutrition & Environment Sections) part 2

The 135th APHA Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 3-7, 2007) of APHA