Statement Regarding the Supermarket Opening on Myrtle Avenue

Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE) is pleased that after five years of the absence of a supermarket across from Ingersoll Houses, that a new supermarket will open to provide access to healthy, affordable food as well as jobs to 75 local residents. The opening is a very promising step following the input of community residents on accessibility, food selection and local employment.

We’re thankful for the help and support of NYC Council Members Letitia James, NYS Senator Velmanette Montgomery, NYS Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries, the Myrtle Avenue Revitalization Project, UFCW Local 1500, The Economic Development Committee of Community Board 2, The Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, the Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, the Brooklyn Community Foundation, the New York Foundation and most importantly, the hundreds of FUREE members, community residents and leaders who all worked to highlight the importance of increasing the availability of sustainable food systems in low income and working class communities locally and abroad. We’re also thankful to NYS Committee Member, Lincoln Restler for his assistance in coordinating meetings with the Red Apple Group.

Food justice is an important extension of the fight for racial, gender and economic justice. The rise of food deserts following market-led development meant that thousands of low income and working class residents were unable to afford food or had to choose between grocery shopping or paying utility bills. The decrease in food options meant that more and more families were at risk for obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease and other health impacts that are directly connected to nutrition. Fort Greene and Downtown Brooklyn was no exception.

 The findings in a report released by FUREE and the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project, identified the top three concerns of local community residents were affordability, quality and access to jobs within local food systems (Food Fight, 2009).  The first recommendation of this report is exactly what happened in this instance: that the developer must work with the community to receive input regarding the type of available food, pricing and employment practices.  Other recommendations related to food quality, the definition of good jobs, as well as accessibility and transparency all exhibit an understanding that community residents are not simply receivers of a community service but are active in ensuring that the part of this local food system is sustainable for residents and retailers.

Our members worked hard to bring about this economic and environmental justice struggle through community mobilization, political education, leadership development, voter organizing, and have fought this fight with community and labor partners, releasing reports, testifying at hearings, partaking in Governor Paterson’s Environmental Justice Task Force and working with UFCW Local 1500 and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to enact the FRESH program.

We join with the community in welcoming the opening of this supermarket and hope that the Red Apple Group continues to take measures to enact community recommendations for food affordability.

We implore other community organizations, municipalities, and developers to engage in this democratic process for increasing sustainable food systems in communities that are majorly impacted by the lack of access to healthy affordable foods.

 Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE) is a Brooklyn-based multi-racial organization made up almost exclusively of women of color.  We are organizing low-income families to build power to change the system so that all people's work is valued and all of us have the right and economic means to decide and live out our own destinies.  We use direct action, leadership development, community organizing, civic engagement and political education to win the changes our members seek. Our guiding principle is that those directly affected by the policies we are seeking to change should lead the organization.

“Families United for Racial & Economic Equality (FUREE) commends the Red Apple Group (RAG) for holding the job fair geared for local residents. The new supermarket represents a tremendous opportunity to provide employment for a community in need of good-paying jobs. Local hiring was one of the community's top priorities for the supermarket and we expect RAG to additionally ensure that food at their store is both quality and genuinely affordable to low-income and working families in the area. We've been working on this issue ever since RAG demolished the old supermarket and other stores serving public housing years ago. We're used to developers making promises to the community and then turning their backs on us. The good news about local hiring and RAG's willingness to meet with us previously gives us confidence that this time will be different.”  - Celina Lynch, Treasurer, FUREE & resident of Ingersoll Houses