142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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302363
New York City Green Carts: Is the program alleviating food deserts?

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 : 3:30 PM - 3:50 PM

Kathleen Y. Li , School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA
Ellen K. Cromley, PhD , Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT
Ashley Fox, PhD, MA , Department of Health Evidence and Policy, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY
Carol R. Horowitz, MD, MPH , Department of Health Evidence and Policy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
Introduction: To promote healthier eating in neighborhoods with the lowest reported rates of fruit and vegetable consumption in New York City, the health department established a fruit and vegetable street vendor program (NYC Green Carts). We examined characteristics of areas with and without Green Carts to explore whether Carts are reaching the intended "food desert" populations.

Methods: We obtained a list of Green Cart locations and categorized “healthy” and “unhealthy” food stores within target neighborhoods using federal classification codes corroborated by online storefront images. Using geographic analytic software, we mapped existing Green Carts and generated a list of potential (candidate) sites where Carts could have located. We compared demographic, food environment, and other neighborhood characteristics for actual and candidate sites.

Results: Compared to the 644 candidate Green Carts locations identified, the 265 Green Carts had significantly more healthy food stores nearby (p<.001) and were less likely to be in food deserts, defined as no healthy food stores within a 1/4-mile (7.2% vs 37.1%, p<.001). Green Carts were also generally closer to subway stops (p<.001), had more large employers nearby (p<.001), and were in tracts with larger populations (p<.001) but lower median incomes (p<.001) when compared to candidate sites.

Discussion:   While Green Carts were located in population dense, low-income areas, they were rarely situated in food deserts, and many food deserts lacked a Green Cart, suggesting that Carts are not positioned to reach the most underserved neighborhoods. The program could consider identifying specific high-need tracts and incentivizing vendors to locate there.

Learning Areas:

Chronic disease management and prevention
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Public health or related public policy
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Evaluate the food environment in low-income, high-disparity neighborhoods in New York City. Compare demographic and food environment characteristics of neighborhoods with and without Department of Health-sanctioned mobile produce vendors.

Keyword(s): Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Public Health Policy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the principal investigator on this and another project relating to Green Carts, which contribute to the current literature relating to food deserts, food swamps, and health policy solutions to curbing rising obesity rates. My scientific interests include the evaluation of various public health policy approaches to preventing chronic diseases.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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