Listen: ‘Food apartheid’ starves minority neighborhoods on Long Island

James Boone wakes up at 6 a.m. nearly every Sunday, driving his van to Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores on Long Island in order to rescue food destined for the dumpster. After gathering mountains of produce, Boone heads to a parking lot in his hometown of Hempstead, where a small army of volunteers joins him in unloading the bounty and packing the food into hundreds of cardboard boxes.

Hempstead, like about two dozen other communities on Long Island, is a food desert, meaning fresh, nutritious groceries are difficult to access. Boone volunteers with the non-profit Community Solidarity, which runs food share programs to connect residents with free vegetarian meals. More than 220,000 people on Long Island face food insecurity, meaning they might not have easy access to quality food. Of that, some 65,000 are children, according to statistics from Long Island Cares, a large food bank on Long Island.

In this episode, we speak with Jon Stepanian, president and CEO of Community Solidarity, and volunteers like Boone who work together to address food insecurity on Long Island. Jessica Rosati, the Chief Program Officer for Long Island Cares Inc, tells us about the state of food insecurity. And Tambra Raye Stevenson, founder and CEO for WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture, provides us with context about how systemic racism impacts the U.S. food system, creating what she refers to as “food apartheid.” 

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A transcript of this episode is available here. 

Read more on some of the topics discussed in this episode:

• Learn more about the Community Solidarity food share and their efforts in Hempstead, Long Island. And check out this TEDx talk by Jon Stepanian.
• Learn more about Long Island Cares and their report “Equitable Food Access: An assessment of racial and cultural food barriers on Long Island.”
• Read more about food deserts on Long Island.
• Read more about pandemic-era SNAP benefits ending.
• Learn more about WANDDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics And Agriculture.

This podcast was made possible with support from the Commonwealth Fund.