What could be better than learning about just, sustainable, healthy and delicious food systems for free and in your neighborhood?

Well, if you live or will be in Brooklyn, NY on May 2nd, the Brooklyn Food Coalition, is seeking to bring together a uniquely broad and diverse community of activists and citizens to discuss and learn more about the critical food issues of our time and what role we as neighbors can play to address them.   Both Hazon and the Jew and the Carrot are conference partners so come and meet some of your favorite Jew and the Carrot writers!  Click here for more information.

Facts about Food and Health for Brooklyn and all of New York City

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67% of Americans are either overweight or obese.

More than half of adult New Yorkers, about 53%, are overweight.

The generation of children alive today may be the first to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents; Researchers attribute this to obesity.

The proportion of American children ages 6 to 11 considered overweight more than quadrupled from 4% in the early 1970s to 17% by 2003.

Nearly half, or 43%, of elementary school-age children in New York City are overweight.

The poorest neighborhoods in New York City are the South Bronx, East and Central Harlem and North and Central Brooklyn, where more than one in three residents live in poverty.

Residents in the poorest neighborhoods of New York City have higher rates of obesity, more than three times the number of deaths from diabetes compared to wealthier areas and about one and half times the deaths from heart disease.

In 2001, the life expectancy in New York City’s poorest neighborhoods was eight years shorter than in its wealthiest neighborhoods.

Over 70% of adults in Central Brooklyn (Bedford-Stuyvesant, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights & Brownsville) are overweight or obese, compared with 53% in Northwest Brooklyn (Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Brooklyn Heights and Red Hook).

About 91% of New Yorkers do not eat the recommended servings of at least five fruits and/or vegetables per day. A serving is defined as one medium piece of fruit, a half cup of cut-up vegetables, or two cups of leafy vegetables.

North and Central Brooklyn, the neighborhoods in Brooklyn with the highest proportions of residents who don’t eat at least five servings of fruits and/or vegetables per day, also have the highest rates of obesity; between 25% to 34%.

The Upper East Side/Gramercy neighborhoods, where a high proportion of people eat at least five fruits and/or vegetables a day also has the lowest prevalence of obesity; between 8% to 15%.

Lack of access to fruits and vegetables has been linked to obesity and related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

A “Supermarket Need Index” was created by the New York City Department of City Planning to determine the areas of the city with the highest level of diet-related diseases and largest populations with limited opportunities to purchase fresh foods. This index shows that three million New Yorkers live in neighborhoods with a high need for grocery stores.

Neighborhoods in Brooklyn identified by the Supermarket Need Index as having the greatest need for grocery stores include Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, East New York and Sunset Park.

Researchers looking at the availability of fruits and vegetables in food outlets in racially segregated neighborhoods of Brooklyn found large disparities in the number of supermarkets between predominantly white versus black areas. White neighborhoods had 8 supermarkets per census tract, while majority black neighborhoods did not have any supermarkets.

A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the presence of a supermarket reduced the prevalence of overweight and obese residents.

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that 82% of all food stores in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick neighborhoods of Brooklyn are small corner stores known locally as bodegas. Supermarkets make up only 6% of all food stores in this area.

The same study found that bodegas typically lack a selection of healthy foods. One in three bodegas sold reduced-fat milk, and 28% carried apples, oranges and bananas. Only one in 10 carried green leafy vegetables.