By Gloria Stravelli
TRENTON – Options to shop for affordable, nutritious foods are often scarce in communities where some families struggle to put food on the table.
To address this disparity, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) is proposing implementing the Food Desert Relief Act, part of the Economic Recovery Act (ERA) signed into law by Gov. Phil Murphy in January 2021. Food deserts are regions where people have limited access to healthful and affordable food.
According to a press release from the authority, the act is backed up by a $240 million commitment – up to $40 million a year over a period of up to six years – in incentives available to the designated communities that would include tax credits, grants, loans and technical support to increase access to nutritious foods.
The incentives aim to spur the development and construction of supermarkets and grocery stores in towns including Red Bank, Keansburg, Long Branch and Asbury Park, all proposed for designation by the state as food desert communities. Another priority is bolstering existing community assets by making equipment and infrastructure available to provide healthier food options.
The relief act will also “help food retailers respond to the shift to e-commerce” that occurred rapidly during the pandemic.
The four Monmouth County towns are among 50 municipalities in 21 counties throughout New Jersey proposed for the designation. Red Bank ranks 26th on the list, Asbury Park ranks 16th, Long Branch 30th and Keansburg 35th. The portion of Red Bank delineated – home to 1,508 residents – encompasses an area on the West Side of town, bounded by Shrewsbury, Bridge and Locust avenues, E. Bergen Place and the NJ Transit tracks.
Factors that impact the determination of food deserts run the gamut from education, income and health outcomes to transportation access, internet access and more. Unemployment and poverty rates and per capita income also figure into the formula.
According to the NJEDA, the draft Food Desert Community designations were developed in partnership with the departments of Community Affairs and Agriculture, with input from the departments of Human Services and Health.
To gather public input on the Food Desert Relief Act, the authority held two remote listening sessions Jan. 12 and 13. Members of the public can listen to the sessions and provide feedback until Feb. 4 at njeda.com/program-specific-feedback.
Recent data compiled by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey shows that 800,000 New Jersey residents face hunger every day while Feeding America has reported that 192,580 New Jersey children – one in 10 – face hunger.
“Forty million dollars in resources is a staggering amount of funding but it’s also an incredibly complex issue so we’re very excited,” said Tara Colton, executive vice president for economic security for NJEDA.
“The law directs us to designate up to 50 communities and the draft we’ve issued does have 50,” she said. “The programs that can be funded with the $240 million are a range of different strategies to try to combat food insecurity and alleviate food deserts. So they include tax credits for new supermarket development, grants and loans and technical assistance to a range of eligible entities and not just supermarkets.
“We’re also looking at small and mid-size food retailers, organizations that work on broader hunger issues and looking at a lot of reasons why people who reside in food deserts can’t access or afford the food that’s available.”
Supermarkets are a part of the solution, but communities that are smaller may not have as many local shoppers to sustain them, she said.
According to Colton, food deserts and hunger need to become urgent priorities.
“This is one of the brand new initiatives so I think the data on limited access to food, food insecurity, really showed there are too many parts of the state where people can’t get to, or afford or access, healthy, fresh, nutritious food,” she said.
“I think certainly COVID, like so many other issues, really exposed the depth of hunger in New Jersey. But there’s also a silver lining in that it also showed some of the different ways to try and address this, again, especially around technology and food distribution.”
Colton said the list of impacted communities would be presented to the board next month.
“I’m expecting to bring the materials to the board meeting on Feb. 9, that’s when the formal process will be requesting the board to approve the list of communities,” she said. “If the board approves the list, then these 50 communities will be officially designated as food deserts by the EDA and then our next several months will be focused on finalizing the draft regulations.”
They feel the situation warrants moving as quickly as possible, Colton said. She projected the changes would be put in motion before year-end because “the issues are urgent.”
“Certainly combating hunger and recognizing how many people in New Jersey don’t know where their next meal is coming from is something that Gov. Murphy has been focused on,” she said. “The Government Recovery Act was being developed and the EDA was being structured so we would have about 15 different programs under this overarching legislation.
“About half of the programs were improvements and expansions of existing EDA programs and about half of them were brand new,” Colton explained.
The changes, she said, will be impactful.
“Affordable, healthy food should not be something for only a privileged few who can afford it. At a certain level it should be a right, so the goal is to impact the ecosystem to make that possible for all New Jerseyans.”
The article originally appeared in the January 27 – February 2, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
