The price of food varies widely across the city. ½ gallon of 1 percent fat non-flavored milkġ pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts _ What We Found _ġ pound of whole, fresh tomatoes (not cherry, plum or grape)ġ (16-ounce) loaf of 100 percent whole grain breadġ (12- to 14-ounce) box of 100 percent whole grain cereal

This survey did not, however, indicate whether an item was on sale, or the cost of other organic items available. We accounted for some of these factors, but focused primarily on the absolute lowest and highest priced items.īecause organic items are almost always more expensive than non-organic, it was noted when an item was organic. It is clear that many factors impact the price of food, including whether it is store brand or name brand, the time of year, if it is local and/or organic, as well as the weather, environment, and the economy overall. (See Table 1).įor example, sliced white bread, a top-seller according to the USDA report, was changed to 100 percent whole wheat/whole grain bread, and oranges were selected instead of 100 percent orange juice. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s list of Foods Typically Purchased by SNAP Households, however, several substitutions were made to include foods we believed to be healthier than those on the original list. The foods we chose to look at were from the U.S. Of the 41 supermarkets and farmers’ markets, 19 were located in non-poverty neighborhoods and 22 in poverty neighborhoods (based on New York City’s Poverty Tool ). Markets were picked by students (with some direction from the Center) based on a variety of factors (see Table 7 for the list of supermarkets). We surveyed thirty-five (35) supermarkets, 6 farmers’ markets, and 2 online markets (Amazon and FreshDirect). Looking at NYC Supermarket Food Prices - Our Approach At the same time, diet-related diseases are epidemic: more than half of adult New Yorkers are overweight (33 percent) or obese (24 percent), more than one in ten are living with diabetes, and more than one in three have cardiovascular disease.

Why is this type of research so important? More than 1.3 million New York City residents, 16 percent of the city’s population, are food insecure and 1.7 million receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, or food stamp) benefits. Shoppers have to be savvy, mindful, aware, and often willing to travel some distance to find healthy foods at the best price in New York City. The data from this survey shines light on the wide variation in the cost of specific healthy food items and demonstrates that shopping for healthy foods on a budget isn’t easy. Numerous factors, including convenience, affordability, transportation, previous shopping experiences, and even the weather can impact a person’s ability and/or desire to purchase fresh, nutritious food (see here, here and here).

The data collected was impactful and will hopefully lead to more formal research into food pricing in New York City and beyond.Īs we know, there is no silver bullet for creating access to healthy food. eggs, bread, milk) in all of the five major food groups. Our nutrition students hit the pavement and traveled from Elmhurst, Queens, to Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and from Staten Island to the Upper East Side of Manhattan to collect data on the cost of 15 specific, preselected food items (e.g. By the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center StaffĬan a half gallon of milk cost $1.59 in one neighborhood and $4.84 in another that’s only a few miles away? Between February and April of 2017, under the direction of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, 30 undergraduate Hunter College Nutrition students visited 41 supermarkets and farmers’ markets in their neighborhoods to answer that question.

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