City Harvest’s Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative – Retail Work A Targeted Approach to

Healthier Communities

City Harvest Efficiency and Impact

• With a fleet of 19 trucks, 3 cargo bicycles and a 45,000

square-foot Food Rescue Facility, City Harvest rescues

food that would otherwise go to waste from nearly 2,000

restaurants, grocery stores, wholesalers, corporate

cafeterias, and farmers.

• We deliver this food free of charge to more than 500 soup

kitchens and food pantries throughout the five boroughs,

helping to feed the 1.4 million New Yorkers who face

hunger every year.

• Last year, we delivered a record 46 million pounds of

food, 60% of which was fresh produce. This year we will

deliver 50 million pounds.

• It costs us just 25 cents to rescue and deliver a pound of

food, and 93 cents of every dollar supports our anti-

hunger programs.

The Problem: Hunger & diet-related disease converge in low-income communities

Washington

Heights/Inwood

Overweight or Obese: 56.4%

Poverty: 25.8%

South Bronx

Overweight or Obese:

68.6%

Poverty: 40.8%

Northwest Queens

Overweight or Obese:

49.1%

Poverty: 20.6%

North Shore of Staten

Island

Overweight or Obese: 64.3%

Poverty: 21%

Bedford Stuyvesant

Overweight or Obese:

68.7%

Poverty: 21.4%

Health and weight indicators: Community Health Survey, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 2009.

Poverty rates: 2011: U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey, One-year Estimates: Table C17001

Manhattan

Bronx

Queens

Brooklyn

Staten Island

The Vision: Fruit and vegetables are

available, affordable, and in high

demand • Use a targeted approach, focusing on low-income

communities

• Integrate a series of emergency food, food retail,

and nutrition programs

• Build a scalable, replicable model that can be

shared with other organizations and communities

Mobile Market Improved Store Produce Section Cooking Demonstration

An Integrated Approach

BUILDING HEALTHY

NEIGHBORHOODS

FOOD RETAIL PARTNERSHIPS

NUTRITION EDUCATION

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHI

PS

EMERGENCY FOOD

Improving the Retail

Environment

• Healthy Supermarkets

• Healthy Corner Stores

Associated

Supermarket

We partner with local businesses to increase

access to healthy, affordable food to create:

Before After

Healthy Supermarket

Program • Launched in late 2012

• Goal: 64 stores by end of 2017, currently about 31

• Work with stores to increase sales of quality, affordable produce

• Built from successful NYC DOHMH program focusing on makeover

and training for produce department employees

• Provide stores with baskets, merchandisers, price signs, very

intensive 1-1 coaching and marketing materials

Before After

Healthy Supermarket

Program

• Supermarkets receive 8-12 weekly all day sessions one-on-one

with produce department employees

• Core lessons covering everything from ordering and receiving,

refrigeration and storage, display and merchandising to

developing a fresh cut fruit and vegetable business within the

produce department

• 4 seasonal marketing campaigns and merchandising coaching

for stores with good quality produce departments

• When feasible, stores also receive cooking demos and

shopping tours

Healthy Supermarket

Program • Evaluation includes inventory, customer surveys

and basket checks, quality assessment and

when possible, sales figures

• Program has been well-received

• Many stores lack access to formal training,

operate on very thin profit margins and lack basic

equipment

• Other stores are new and several have since

invested in new equipment to improve their

produce quality, such as air-flow coolers for leafy

greens

Biggest Lessons

Learned • Most stores have very thin profit margins, and lack practical tools, technology and knowledge about maintaining produce

• It’s very difficult to take the leap to selling better produce more cheaply

• This work is extremely high-touch: communication is based on flyers, in person meetings, calls: not email or Twitter

• The key to this work is building trust, which takes repeated visits

Measure Our Progress

Utilize evaluation to strengthen programming

• Use data to drive decision making

• Build an evidence base

• Invest in most effective strategies

• Share lessons with a wide audience

• Seek partnerships with academic and public health

institutions

Collecting Data Partnering with Stores Sharing Knowledge