Affordable Food in NYC

**Kousha Navadar** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, I'm Kousha Navadar, I'm filling in for Brian. Let's turn now to grocery stores and SNAP benefits. Food insecurity continues to challenge our city with a citywide rate of about one in every six people, according to a report from the mayor's Office of Food Policy. In some reports, it's as high as one in five people. A key proposal of the mayor's campaign, grocery stores run by the city. On Monday, city officials announced updates to the plan, including that these stores will offer meat, seafood and produce 30 percent cheaper than other retail stores. The plan to open five subsidized stores is in motion with the city opening a request for proposal, which means private grocers can now apply to help run these stores.
One response from local small businesses has been that the subsidized stores could put local bodegas and grocers in jeopardy. Some are saying maybe out of business. We're going to get into that and into all of the latest from Monday's announcement and what it means moving forward for affordable food for our city. We're also then going to hear the latest about another food issue of food insecurity in New York. I'm talking about SNAP benefits and how many folks have lost them recently.
In June, more than 22,000 New Yorkers lost their monthly SNAP food benefits. This is the result of new qualification rules by the Trump administration. We'll get into those changes, what they mean, and how city-run grocery stores will contribute to the reality many are trying to navigate of affording life in New York. Here to walk us through all of it is Karen Yi, reporter for Gothamist who's been covering these stories. Welcome, Karen.

**Karen Yi** (1:48)
Hey, Gujja.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:49)
Good to be here.

**Kousha Navadar** (1:50)
Good to have you here. Listeners, we're taking your calls too. Are you looking forward to city run grocery stores? Why or why not? I'd be especially interested to hear from anyone who owns or works in the world of bodegas and grocery stores. What do you think about how the plan is developing? The number is 212-433-WNYC.
That's 212-433-9692.
Later on in this segment, we'll also take your calls about SNAP benefits. And I'd love to hear from someone who's had to navigate the changes to SNAP since June. How's it going for you? Do you have questions for our guest? Reporter Karen Yi, call or text us. 212-433-WNYC. Okay, Karen, let's start with grocery stores. On Monday, Mayor Mamdani and city officials had a press conference. What were the big announcements?

**Karen Yi** (2:39)
So the mayor went to the Campaign Against Hunger. This is an anti-hunger group based in East New York. And it was at their warehouse. They're kind of a food distributor.
And, you know, he was in front of a bunch of stalls of food and even held up some bananas at some point. And the big news was what you said, right? He, his municipal grocery stores will offer a 30% discount on what he's calling a core group of items. And that includes meat, seafood, fresh produce and other pantry staples. And the other thing he announced was that the city was looking for a partner in this to do a sort of private public partnership to operate these stores. So the city is going to put down, they're going to cover some of the expenses, rent and property taxes. And the private operator is going to run the day to day operations of the actual store, which is their specialty. So they opened up the RFP process and sort of the big tagline of his grocery store is going to be 30% off of basic items.

**Kousha Navadar** (3:37)
So here are two big things there. One, 30% off core group things, not everything, but some core staples. And then the second from the press conference, public-private partnership of who's covering what costs. The city will cover, you mentioned real estate, you mentioned taxes, and then the private partner there that are now allowed to apply will cover everything else.
Did I get all of that?

**Karen Yi** (4:01)
Yes, and I think what was interesting about that is sort of how the city is sort of envisioning their role and how they're bringing in the experts which are the grocers, right? Because the city is not in the business of running a grocery store. It's a complicated, it's a tricky business, it involves supply chains.

**Kousha Navadar** (4:15)
And refrigerators.

**Karen Yi** (4:16)
Yes, refrigerator storage, knowing what to buy. And so they're really going to leverage the private operator here to actually use their existing contracts with distributors, their knowledge of the supply chain to determine whether they're even going to source this food from. And they're also going to be in charge of staffing and training up their staff.