A new gourmet supermarket is planned in Melrose.

Owner says shoppers will pay more, but will eat healthier

An entrepreneur is set to bring a gourmet market to Melrose, hoping to take a bite out of fast food culture with healthier alternatives.

Developer DeVon Prioleau says the Fresca Gourmet Market he is planning to open in the new Boricua Village complex on E. 161^st St. and Third Ave. will help provide the community with the same access to high-quality food more affluent parts of the city have long enjoyed.

“The Bronx can ill afford another liquor store or sneaker store,” Prioleau said.  “I want to give people other options.”

Prioleau, 29, said the  supermarket will be “reminiscent of a Fifth Avenue store rather than a Third Avenue deli.”

In 2008 the Department of City Planning conducted a citywide “Supermarket Shortage” study, in which it identified the South Bronx as one of four underserved high-density population centers severely lacking in fresh food venues. Over a quarter of all adults said they don’t eat any fruits or vegetables on any given day, according to a follow-up study released in November.

That report – called “FoodWorks” and issued by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn – cited the lack of healthy options, coupled with rising prices for nutritious foods and steadily low prices for unhealthy alternatives, as factors contributing to soaring rates of diabetes and other diseases caused by poor eating habits.

The report recommends increasing financial and zoning incentives for grocery stores that open in underserved communities, as part of the city’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) project.

Over 13 percent of South Bronx residents suffered from diabetes in 2009, and 70 percent of its adults were considered overweight or obese, according to a report released by the city’s Department of Health. But according to a report issued that same year by the Bronx District Public Health Office, 40 percent of respondents said it was difficult to find fresh and affordable produce in the area.

May May Leung, who teaches public health at Hunter College, said chronic illnesses like diabetes and obesity can be reduced by making nutritious food affordable and easily accessible for the city’s lower-income residents.

“Modifying the environment is an important component” to help people change their eating habits, she said.

Prioleau, a Bronx native, says he saw a business opportunity in his “untapped and unexposed” home borough, combined with financial incentives for increasing the availability of fresh, nutritious food through the FRESH program.

He says he has secured nearly a million dollars already, through loans from private sources, as well as from the city.

The young entrepreneur says South Bronx residents regularly put up with “ghetto fabulous supermarkets with bread that’s a day old and food that’s expiring,” and adds that while the neighborhood will benefit from higher-quality food, he has no choice but to pass higher costs on to customers. He said prices will be 50 cents to a dollar per item higher than what local shoppers are accustomed to paying.

Mercy Cruz, 41, has lived in the neighborhood for 22 years.  “Food here is spoiled and old.  It’s just not good,” she said.   Cruz would welcome the new supermarket in Melrose, but said she worried low-income families “might have a problem with higher prices,” then added, “sometimes you have to pay a little extra to get better quality.”

Raymond Arias, 50, who has been selling fruits and vegetables from a nearby stand for the last five years, doesn’t think his small operation will be impacted by the new gourmet market. “Maybe I can go work for them,” he said, laughing.

Prioleau says he is going through the certification process so the market can accept food stamps, and added the store will carry over 4,000 products that reflect the tastes of the area’s diverse ethnic groups. In addition, he says other services, such as cooking classes, will be offered.

Fresca Gourmet Market is slated to open its doors later this year,  and Prioleau would like to see three more stores open in the next five years.

“The wheels are in motion,” he said.

Magician David Blaine holds 2-year-old Aziyah Hopper. Young people from the unit looking on are Janiyah Jeffrey, Amber Marrero, Natalie Morales, David Richardson and Daniel Murray.

Children meet world-famous performer

Internationally renowned magician David Blaine performed magic and card tricks for children at Lincoln Hospital’s pediatric unit during the holiday season.

A modern-day Houdini, Blaine has built his reputation on such achievements as freeing himself from handcuffs while holding his breath under water.

Every year, Blaine travels around the country performing magic for children’s hospital wards, burn units and juvenile detention centers.

From December through April, those who subscribe to the farm share program will get monthly deliveries, making Corbin Hill the first year-round supplier of local produce with a specific emphasis on low-income neighborhoods in New York City.

Full price for a winter share is $240 for the five-month season. Corbin Hill also offers a special subsidized price of $150 for the Winter Farm Share to those eligible for SNAP benefits.

Each month the program will deliver 15-20 pounds of root vegetables and hearty greens that do not need to be refrigerated to local drop-off points.

The produce comes from Corbin Hill Road Farm and several others in Schoharie County, 40 miles west of Albany.

This summer more than 500 participants in the South Bronx and Harlem received weekly deliveries of fruit and vegetables.

In addition to providing fresh, wholesome food, the project is also dedicated to fostering a relationship between rural farming communities and urban neighborhoods. In August, when Hurricane Irene devastated farms and towns in upstate New York, Corbin Hill shareholders collected donations for storm victims.

In the future, Corbin Hill plans to create an upstate-downstate exchange program for young people.

Applications may be picked up and filled out at WHEDco, 50 E. 168th Street or The Point Community Development Corp., 940 Garrison Avenue or be submitted by visiting http://www.corbinhillfarm.com/join.html.

Photo by Gwen McClure Local residents have united to oppose development of this site on E. 144th St. into a mental health and social service facility.

A group of Mott Haven residents has organized to protest a proposed housing development for the mentally ill, saying the neighborhood already has far more than its fair share of social service agencies.

The group, called Voices of the People, is frustrated with the influx of social service programs, and adds they were given no advance notice that plans for still another were underway.

“We have so many shelters and programs and they are all crowded. We are hyper-saturated,”said resident Marcelino Sanchez. “I think it is a crime.”

The publicly funded 60-unit doorman facility on E. 144^th Street between Brook and Willis Ave. will include 18 units dedicated to general low-income housing. Another 42 will be for adults and young adults with mental illness. The low-income housing will include studios and one- and two-bedrooms for tenants and will have a minimum income requirement. For those living with mental illness, there will be on-site support including case management and mental-health counselors.

At a community board meeting in October, residents expressed concern that the development would bring back problems their community faced in previous decades.

Dr. Marian Rivas, whose family has owned a home on 144^th St. since 1949, recalled neighborhood safety problems of the 1960s and ’70s. Since then she has seen the area steadily improve, until several years ago when she started to notice increased drug use and loitering, some of which she and other frustrated residents say stems from unsupervised clients from the area’s many social service facilities.

“It looked like Berlin after the war,” Rivas recalled. “We are survivors through the worst. Why should we have to go through it again?”

According to Carlos Garcia, director of residential programs for The Association for Rehabilitative Case Management and Housing, the non-profit that plans to open the site, this isn’t the first time his organization has received resistance from a community based on concerns about the impact.

He said applicants are screened thoroughly for histories of violence and sex offenses and that only graduates of ACMH programs will be housed.

“Typically we are faced with the ‘not-in-my-backyard’ kind of thing,” Garcia said.

He said that stories of people defecating in the streets and exposing themselves were not based in reality. “It’s just like in any neighborhood,” Garcia said. “If you see that kind of stuff, you call the police.”

But homeowners argue that rather than provide housing for deserving low-income residents from the neighborhood, the developments draw people from elsewhere looking for better access to services. Some residents expressed concerns about the safety of their children, fearing the development will draw a dangerous clientele to a neighborhood filled with schools. Others were concerned about decreasing property values.

“Much of their wealth is tied up in their homes,” Rivas said of her neighbors, adding they will urge elected officials to help stymy the project by cutting off the developers’ funding.

State Senator Jose M. Serrano attended the meeting to discuss other matters, but soon found himself fending off criticism from the group directed towards him and other elected officials for not defending residents’ rights.

“When you have an over-concentration of social services in one community, you have to ask why,” Serrano responded, admitting he knew nothing of the project before hearing the group complain at the October meeting.

“So why don’t we have these facilities on 72^nd and Park Avenue?” he said, adding, “these services can be spread out.”

Community Board 1 district manager Cedric Loftin said the number of units for low-income residents is too small to offset changes he believes will occur in the neighborhood such as an increased police presence and an increased feeling of insecurity. He said the community board will work with the governor’s office and other elected officials to try to get funding reallocated to a project elsewhere.

“The location is bad and it needs to be looked at from the perspective of the community that’s going to be impacted,” said Loftin.

The citizens group has met with elected officials who have vowed to help them fight the project, including Assemblywoman Carmen E. Arroyo.

Daniel Johansson, CEO of the site developer, cited a study done by the Furman Center at NYU in 2008, which found that property values actually increased when supportive housing was developed in the area. He said the area was chosen because of a partnership with Lincoln Hospital and a need for supportive and low-income housing in the area.

“There are so many folks that end up being re-hospitalized in the Bronx who have a mental health issue,” he said. “Once you have a roof over your head it’s so much easier to get your life together.”

]]> http://motthavenherald.com/2011/11/03/residents-rail-against-new-social-service-development/feed/ 2 http://motthavenherald.com/2011/10/18/somethings-bubbling-at-mott-haven-school/ http://motthavenherald.com/2011/10/18/somethings-bubbling-at-mott-haven-school/#comments Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:52:40 +0000 By Elizabeth Chen http://motthavenherald.com/?p=4219

Photo by Elizabeth Chen Students at Mott Haven Academy learn about growing nutritious food.

Focus is on food in Haven Academy wellness program

Sayda Arriola was stunned when her son Adam, a Mott Haven 3^rd grader, told her that a visitor named “Chef James” baked rhubarb pie for his class.

“I remembered thinking, ‘Rhubarb pie? What in the name of Jesus is that?’” she said. Arriola wanted to know who “Chef James” was and learned he was a food education instructor who visits the school.

Chef James’ cooking sessions don’t take place at a posh private school—he’s whipping up pies at Mott Haven Academy, the three-year-old charter school near E. 136^th St. and Brook Ave.

In March, a survey conducted by the Food Research and Action Center revealed that one of three residents in the local school district were not able to afford enough food. Two-thirds of Mott Haven Academy’s student body are in foster care or receiving public assistance, according to principal Jessica Nauiokas.

Despite this socioeconomic reality, the school has been running nutrition and fitness education programs for the past year, with help from the Bubble Foundation, a non-profit group that provides free wellness programs to underserved charter schools. Bubble was founded in early 2010 by Jessica Nauiokas’ sister, Amy Nauiokas, and her business partner and ex-husband James Connolly, “Chef James.”

“When our 7-year-old started attending school in the city, James and I were really concerned with the lack of nutrition and fitness education in urban schools,” said Amy Nauiokas.

She thought it made sense to use the school where her sister was principal as Bubble’s pilot school. Amy Nauiokas’ idea is to adopt a school for two years, bring in wellness programs and guide the school toward sustaining the programs independently.

“We value wellness and to be able to achieve that is really hard to do on our budget,” said Jessica Nauiokas.

Bubble is funded by a number of private corporate donations and charity dinners held for Soho and TriBeCa families, Amy Nauiokas said. Upscale Manhattan food suppliers have donated to Bubble’s nutrition program, BubbleEATS—which consists of a weekly class to teach students about food and trips to the community garden next door, the Wanaqua Family Garden. Students and instructors engage in monthly “family-style” meals in which they serve themselves from communal bowls.

“They get so excited to see the vegetables they recognize,” said Bianca Colbath, one of three full-time volunteer instructors at Haven Academy. “Teaching these kids where their food comes from will allow them to demand healthy food as they get older.”

Bubble plans on withdrawing from Haven Academy next year, as they pursue other schools in the city, including the Dream Academy in Harlem. Nevertheless, Jessica Nauiokas is confident that the programs will last after their departure.

Local education activist Ray Figueroa is skeptical. The interactive aspects of Bubble’s program sound promising, he said, but children’s nutritional health depends mainly on the ability of individual families to afford healthy food.

“Wellness programs can fall flat unless they emphasize the structural needs of families,” said Figueroa. “The economics of poverty discourages healthy eating. We have the highest childhood obesity rates in the city. ”

But Arriola couldn’t be happier with Bubble’s involvement with her children, who now ask her to give them Chef James’ recipes.

“As a concerned mother, I feel there should be no shortage of healthy food for my children,” she said.

Photo by Gwen McClure Peer worker Gina Villacis helps participants sign up for lunch, one of the services offered at CitiWide Harm Reduction.

A Mott Haven health-care agency has embarked on a major expansion which will bring a full array of services to the neighborhood’s population of homeless and at-risk drug users.

CitiWide Harm Reduction, a 16-year-old program housed near a bodega and a diner on 144th Street, will begin construction on the new $400,000 Wellness Center this month.

The new center will be staffed with doctors, psychiatrists and nurses to help recovering and current drug users deal with problems ranging from homelessness to AIDS.

“It’s going to be very walk-in oriented,” said Robert Cordero, the executive director. “They can literally walk in and see a provider, and that’s critical when you’re talking about people who are experiencing homelessness and who are using drugs.”

CitiWide already offers its participants a variety of programs and services including needle exchange, basic diagnostic and preventive care, and support groups.

Founded in 1995 by Brian Weil, a photographer and drug user, the agency estimates that it has served 10,000 clients since its foundation. It currently serves over 2,500 clients in an area that remains one of the highest in HIV infection in the nation.

Upstairs on a recent Wednesday people were cleaning and clearing the second floor so that construction could begin.

In the midst of the activity, Randee Phillips stood behind a man seated in a chair with small acupuncture needles protruding from around his ear, a treatment for addiction-related cravings.

“It’s kind of a forgotten population and they feel safe here. It’s really important,” the acupuncturist said. “I see people turn their lives around. I love working here.”

Participant John McDuffie echoed this feeling of comfort. He moved to the Bronx in 2005 in hopes that he would find better services than he had in Long Island and spoke candidly about his struggles with addiction and his mental and physical health.

“For the mental health service, I don’t have to go outside for the clinics,” he said. “It would be much better because I don’t like the buses or trains, I can come right here- at home.”

McDuffie now works in peer outreach, acting as a mentor.

HELP/Project Samaritan, an organization that works to make healthcare more widely accessible, will partner with CitiWide to run the center. Cordero expects the partnership to play a big part in its success.

“In addition to hepatitis, HIV and drug use, they’re struggling, a lot of them, with diabetes and high blood pressure and things that are related to diet,” he said. “So you’ve got this kind of synergy of plagues in the South Bronx that we have an opportunity to make a dent in it. No one agency is going to be able to do it.”

Cordero also said the new center will reduce the cost of healthcare for the government. “The goal here is to create a home for them, a health home,” he said. “They can receive ongoing preventive and primary care so they don’t wind up getting their primary care in the emergency room.”

“It’s very good,” McDuffie said, smiling. “It’s going to help a lot of people.”

Photo by Matthew J. Perlman. Padre Plaza at E. 139th St. and St. Ann's Ave offers fresh veggies in exchange for coupons from the Dept of Health on Wednesdays.

A  Department of Health program called New Bucks will provide Mott Haven residents with fresh produce,  free milk and cooking demonstrations.

Farmer’s Markets are accepting coupons worth $2 each for fresh produce and milk. Two local markets are participating in the city’s Health Bucks program, the Mott Haven Farmer’s Market at 139th St. and St. Ann’s Ave, which is open to the public on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. -5 p.m., and the Lincoln Hospital Greenmarket at the corner of 149th St. and Morris Ave Tuesdays and Fridays between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Both markets accept food stamps.

Residents can get coupons by contacting the Bronx’ main Dept of Health office at 718-466-9178.

For a full list of locations across the Bronx, click on http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/cdp/healthbucks_bronx.pdf.

For every $5 customers spend using SNAP / EBT at participating markets, they will receive an additional health buck coupon, at farmer’s markets where food stamps are accepted.

• One-on-One Public Benefits Counseling, M-Th, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. By appointment only. Residents can learn about access to public benefits, tax credits and other government services. English and Spanish. Call 718-665-5250 x262.

• One-on-One Personal Financial Counseling, Wednesdays,11 a.m.-7 p.m. By Appointment. Learn about credit scores, opening a free bank account, repairing damaged credit, creating a budget, and saving money. English and Spanish. Call 718-665-5250 x221.

• Civil Legal Assistance, every other Tuesday, 2-5 p.m. Appointment only. Topics include employment issues and disputes, housing and eviction prevention, consumer debt (suing a creditor or responding to a suit), domestic abuse, and/or divorce, custody, and child support. English and Spanish. Call 718 665-5250 x262.

• Small Business Assistance. Appointment only. Call 718-665-5250 x221.

Gray skies above couldn’t dampen the spirit of green below.

Hundreds streamed into St. Mary’s Park for the fourth annual South Bronx Earth Fest on April 16 for music, dancing and educational events, but one thing was clear: the environment was center stage.

Green-themed games abounded, such as a Butterfly Project table, where kids crawled around while learning about butterfly habitats, and Materials for the Arts, in which children created masks from recycled materials, with the help of the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Members of the group GrowNYC provided recycling demonstrations and helped kids make solar ovens out of tin foil and pizza boxes. Although rainy conditions didn’t allow 12-year-olds Wasan Bonilla and Gavin Thomas from Mott Haven to make s’mores, , they were among dozens of kids busy crafting ovens.

“I think it’s great, because it’s helping people go green and help the Earth. It’s very helpful to show people how to help the Earth,” said Bonilla.

Contestants were required to get stamped by one of the many volunteers working the tables, in order to win a prize. In turn, the volunteers helped educate them about the environment.

“It’s not just a one-shot deal,” said John H. Johnson III if GrowNYC, which helped organize this year’s festival. “We want to make sure that people walk away with something other than a prize and free food, but some information and knowledge on how to make the planet a much better place.”

On the other side of the pavilion, volunteers staffed prize tables with books, frisbees and organic snacks, while two Green Carts loaded with mangos, apples and other produce added a nutritional component.

Mott Haven resident Donnie Jones Wilson came to spend the day doing something positive with his family.

“I like the fact that it’s a positive thing, and I can bring my children out here and not have to worry about any negativity going on,” he said. “It’s just a good day. Even though it’s cloudy, it’s a great day.”

He said Global Man was his favorite part of the day, and he wasn’t alone. The green-masked avenger mingled with the crowd and pointed out litter. That needed to be thrown out. And he brought green-masked young acolytes along, to help him recruit newer members.

“I think the young people that support, educate, walk around and clean-up and recycle,” said Jean Pierre LaCour who played Global Man, “it shows a lot of faith that young people really believe what we’re doing.”

His message — that everyone can be a superhero for the environment — seemed especially plausible, as volunteers at every table recommended different ways for festival attendees to green the environment.

Adam Liebowitz, director of community development for Hunts Point’s The POINT CDC, told the crowd about some of that organization’s current initiatives, including teaching urban agriculture, helping plan construction and implementation of the South Bronx Greenway project along the Bronx River, and launching a community garden in Hunts Point that will offer low-cost, locally-grown vegetables for low-income residents.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. praised the volunteers, saying, “It really shows that we can care about Mother Earth,” he said,” pointing out projects such as the vertical farming project at Discovery High School, where students grow food.

Rain forced some tables to pack up early, but a committed crowd sought shelter under a tent while watching environmentally-themed performances like a hip-hop performance by Wildlife/ATM.

Despite the damp chill and dark skies, activists for the environment were undaunted. Marta Rodriguez, who administers a green jobs training program at Sustainable South Bronx in Hunts Point, got through the afternoon just fine.

“It’s just Mother Nature telling us she’s giving back, so we have to give back to her,” said Rodriguez.

Mothers on the Move marched in protest of the Housing Authority's failure to provide jobs to tentants. Here, the Rally moves down 138th Street on its way to the Hub.

The New York City Housing Authority has reneged on a decade-old commitment to put job-hungry tenants to work making the buildings they live in cleaner and healthier, according to housing advocates.

Advocacy groups in the South Bronx are trying to change that.

A tinny voice called out from a windy sidewalk to residents in Mott Haven’s Mitchel Houses in mid-April, persuading them to join a march through the neighborhood to pressure the city to provide them with green jobs.“Yeah you, looking out your windows,” shouted Cerita Parker of Longwood-based housing advocacy group Mothers on the Move, through a megaphone. “This is for you.”

“If you live in NYCHA housing, you have a right to NYCHA jobs,” she continued. “That’s a right, not a privilege.”

Activists are demanding Housing Authority officials live up to a 2001 commitment to spend 15 percent of the agency’s labor costs putting tenants to work on renovation and construction projects in the buildings they live in.

In a 2004 audit, the city’s Comptroller’s office found the agency had put barely half that amount into its Resident Employee Program. Then, in a 2008 follow-up audit, the Comptroller found that the Housing Authority had fully addressed only one of six recommendations it had made following the earlier audit.

“A serious lack of NYCHA management oversight and commitment to the [program] resulted in program goals not being achieved,” read the 2008 report. “By not enforcing REP requirements, NYCHA allowed contractors to largely ignore the REP provision of their contracts.

But last year, when advocates approached NYCHA’s Environmental Coordinator, Margarita Lopez, requesting the city follow through on its pledge to create green jobs, “she told us, ‘we’re not an employment agency,’” says Nova Strachan of Mothers on the Move.

Members of Mothers on the Move say they have tried unsuccessfully to get a meeting with Lopez since October.
Housing Authority officials did not respond to requests for comment at press time.

More than two-thirds of public housing tenants responding to a survey conducted by Mothers on the Move and the Urban Justice Center earlier this year said they want jobs that would help improve housing conditions and air quality. Nearly all identified poor air quality as a factor contributing to health problems in their buildings.

Cockroaches, rats and mold, all of which are prevalent in NYCHA buildings, are known asthma triggers. Hospitalization rates for Bronx children under five with asthma were more than triple those of their Manhattan counterparts in 2008, the last year for which statistics from the state’s Department of Health are available.

The Bronx unemployment rate, 12.7% as of February, is more than three percent higher than the national average, and over five percent higher than Manhattan’s, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor.

A.D. Wade moved to the Mitchel Houses 15 years ago, and was diagnosed with asthma ten years later.“I can’t leave the house without this pump,” he said, holding up an inhaler.

Nathaniel Jones, a job-hunting former resident of the Mitchel Houses who stopped at the rally to take a brochure, said the two children he raised there were both diagnosed with asthma while infants.

Nova Strachan says employing NYCHA tenants to fix up their buildings would reduce triggers for disease in the buildings, while addressing job needs.

But while a green jobs initiative would be mutually beneficial, she maintains, residents should be hired for long-term jobs they can later parlay into private sector opportunities, rather than the kind of short-term jobs NYCHA has previously provided.

“We need more than a two or three-month job. It needs to be a career,” she said. “It seems like these jobs are setting people up for failure.”