Editor’s note: This story is the first of a new series called Health and Hunger on Staten Island, which examines food insecurity in the borough and how it affects locals’ health.Complete coverage may be found here >>
New York’s Staten Island — On any given Tuesday afternoon, hundreds of locals can be seen waiting impatiently for canned foods and fresh produce to help their families get through the week as they line the pavement outside El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond for the organization’s weekly food pantry.
More than 200 families receive weekly assistance from the pantry, which is stocked and funded by the joint efforts of Project Hospitality and The Rabbinical Alliance of America. This is partly because rising grocery prices and rental costs are making it more difficult for lower- and middle-class residents to make ends meet.
The majority of islanders are mostly unaware of food poverty and hunger, but hundreds of Staten Islanders struggle everyday to feed themselves and their children despite government help and donations from local NGOs.
In actuality, one of the most significant public health issues that Staten Island is currently dealing with is concealed in plain sight.
The cost of food has increased dramatically since COVID, and rent is at an all-time high. According to Michelle Molina, executive director of El Centro Del Inmigrante, working families that are not eligible for any housing subsidies—which is the case for many families—must decide between paying their rent, purchasing food, and purchasing diapers.
While the dozens of food pantries located around Staten Island make every effort to offer wholesome, nutritious options to families in need, impoverished locals sometimes resort to inexpensive, processed, unhealthy meals that can cause major health issues after they have been consumed.
The weekly food pantry at El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond provides food for hundreds of families. (Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance)Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance
BY THE DATA
Thousands of people throughout the borough are affected by food insecurity and the detrimental health effects of eating an unhealthful diet, but as is frequently the case, those who are struggling financially are disproportionately affected.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2023 PLACES and the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey were recently examined by the Staten Island Advance/SILive.com: According to a Local Data for Better Health study, the prevalence of a number of diseases linked to poor diet is higher in places where a larger proportion of the population depends on government help to buy food.
According to the data, obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure are more common in Staten Island ZIP codes with the largest proportion of individuals receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a sign of food insecurity.
Obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure affect 36%, 13.9%, and 32.9% of individuals in the 10304 ZIP code, while a borough-high 26.1% of households receive SNAP assistance.
The rates of adults with the aforementioned health issues are 31.1%, 9.7%, and 29%, respectively, in the 10308 ZIP code, which has the lowest percentage of households receiving SNAP benefits (3.8%).
Comparing these two regions, the prevalence of adult obesity is 15.8% higher in 10304 than in 10308, while the rates of high blood pressure and diabetes are 13.4% and 43.3% higher, respectively.
The interactive map below illustrates how economically deprived communities are more likely to suffer from nutrition-related diseases, a tendency that is seen throughout the borough with few exceptions.
One prevalent misunderstanding regarding food insecurity is that people who experience it are unlikely to get obese or suffer from weight-related conditions since there isn’t enough food available to them.
However, experts emphasized that food insecurity does not always imply that a person is without food; rather, it can refer to a number of circumstances, such as the accessibility of fresh produce in their community and the fact that healthier food is typically more costly, forcing these residents to turn to less nutritious but less expensive options.
According to Dr. Ana Mendez, chief of ambulatory pediatrics at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC), if you only have access to processed foods, you run the risk of becoming obese and experiencing its side effects, which include diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension, and sleep apnea. This can actually shorten your life.
The weekly food pantry at El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond provides food for hundreds of families. (Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance)Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance
DESERTS OF FOOD
Food insecurity on Staten Island and in the United States is largely caused by food deserts, which are geographical locations where locals have little access to fresh produce because there aren’t many conveniently located grocery shops.
The phrase refers to different areas of the borough, but especially to the North Shore, where a lack of grocery stores and low rates of car ownership cause many locals to shop at neighborhood bodegas and corner stores, which provide far less wholesome options than large supermarkets.
Food deserts and food insecurity are closely related. What a food desert is, then, is not so much a lack of food as it is a lack of fresh or nutrient-dense foods. The director of medical weight loss at Staten Island University Hospital-Northwell Health, Dr. Shiara Ortiz-Pujols, stated that ultra-processed meals are actually quite accessible, particularly in communities of color and locations with lower budgets.
Residents have long complained about the lack of large grocery stores on the North Shore of the borough, with some having to take several buses to get to the closest store before carrying their groceries home on Staten Island’s meager public transit system.
Richmond Terrace, a nearly six-mile road that crosses several ZIP codes and covers a large portion of the borough’s North Shore, is one such area where inhabitants face food insecurity and have higher incidence of nutrition-related illnesses.
The Department of City Planning has been collaborating with local leaders in recent years to explore options to redevelop Richmond Terrace to better meet the needs and desires of the neighborhood, including modifying the zoning to permit supermarkets to operate there.
The weekly food pantry at El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond provides food for hundreds of families. (Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance)Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance
Neighbors supporting one another
The adage “it takes a village” is frequently used to describe raising children, but it also describes the borough’s strategy for addressing food insecurity, as local medical facilities and community organizations strive to give their impoverished neighbors access to fresh produce and other wholesome food options.
The Staten Island Hunger Task Force, an alliance of many community organizations collaborating to provide food to underprivileged Staten Islanders and push for significant legislation to address the persistent problem, is arguably the best example of this strategy.
According to Heather Butts, co-founder and executive director of H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths and vice-chair of the Staten Island Hunger Task Force, the problem of food insecurity on Staten Island is mostly ignored and underfunded.
With its comprehensive list and interactive map that displays all food pantries currently functioning around Staten Island, along with their hours of operation, the task force is a priceless resource for people who are having difficulty providing for their families.
To locate a food pantry in their area, residents can search the borough’s dozens of locations on the Staten Island Hunger Task Force website.
A H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths project called the Clementine Collective supplies fresh vegetables to bodegas and corner stores in Staten Island’s food deserts. Residents are free to help themselves to these fruits and vegetables, which are arranged in kiosks outside of stores and change according to what is in season.
Butts added that when the initiative first started in 2020, store owners argued they would be wasting their time and money by putting up the free stands since they believed the people in their communities didn’t want fresh fruits or veggies.
As it happens, that couldn’t be further from the reality. The free produce was so popular that the organization decided to spread the effort from one storefront to over a dozen locations throughout the borough.
The organization is now trying to persuade these store owners to sell their own fresh fruits and vegetables in order to guarantee residents’ continuous, reliable access to nutritious meals, even though they are now acting as an essential temporary solution to get them into the hands of those in need.
These Clementine Collective stands are not a perfect fix, obviously, but we ve been putting everything from sweet potatoes to carrots to all sorts of different vegetables in the stands to supplement some of what people are getting and it s free, said Butts. But our goal ultimately is to work with these store owners to convert them from the thinking that people in these neighborhoods only want cookies and chips.
The weekly food pantry at El Centro Del Inmigrante in Port Richmond provides food for hundreds of families. (Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance)Erik Bascome/Staten Island Advance
If you or a loved one is struggling with food insecurity and would like to share your story, please contact reporter Erik Bascome [email protected].
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