Street vendors' contribution to urban food environments - variation by weather, season, and neighborhood

INTRODUCTION: Research on food environments has focused mainly on stores and restaurants. Comparatively neglected have been street vendors like roadside carts, trucks, and stands, which may also be important. We sought to describe the contribution of street vendors to food environments in urban neighborhoods. METHODS: Researchers canvassed the entire Bronx looking for street vendors, recording locations, descriptions of food-and-beverage items offered, and vendors' answers to when and where they sell. Neighborhood data came from city and Census sources. RESULTS: Researchers identified 372 vendors. Vendors offering exclusively “less-healthy” foods outnumbered vendors offering exclusively “healthier” foods. Rainy days reduced counts of all vendors on the street, but vendors of exclusively “less-healthy” foods the most. Using a larger definition of “neighborhood” (United Hospital Fund areas), “less-healthy” vending per capita was directly correlated (in summer) with mean sugar-sweetened-beverage consumption, mean body mass index, the proportion of residents reporting high cholesterol or hypertension, and the proportion of residents not graduating high school or living in poverty, and (in winter) with the proportion of poor or Hispanic residents (Spearman correlations 0.90 - 1.00, p values 0.037 to <0.001). Using a smaller definition of “neighborhood” (1/4-mile walking buffer around each vendor), there were greater odds, in summer, of vendors offering “less-healthy” foods with increasing proportions of foreign-born citizens (OR =1.04, p = 0.036), but not in winter. CONCLUSIONS: Street vendors may contribute negatively to food-environment healthfulness overall, but the extent of their overall negative contribution may vary by weather, season, and neighborhood characteristics.