: 1163848053

A new study released by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger found that access to fresh produce is limited in low-income neighborhoods and creates a paradox of high obesity rates combined with poor nutrition.

Neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Central Harlem and Brownsville were studied for the report, which concluded that farmers’ markets and supermarkets are scarce in these communities forcing people to rely on fast-food and bodegas for meals.

The findings also showed that travel distance and lack of information prevented people from enrolling in food stamp programs, and that these programs were insufficient in allowing them to shop for fresh foods.

Although neighborhoods in Queens were not specifically studied, the same trends are mirrored in areas like Astoria, Long Island City and Rockaway, according to Joel Berg, the executive director of the Coalition Against Hunger. According to Coalition surveys, one in 10 Queens families faces hunger or is on the brink of hunger.

Berg said an area like the Rockaways has always struggled with poverty, but with the huge influx of immigrants in Western Queens neighborhoods, those areas are also coping with inadequate food sources. Berg noted that because “most of the subway is designed to get people from Queens to the city to work,” it is a challenge to reach local supermarkets.

Over the last several years, more than a dozen Key Food supermarkets in Queens have closed down, often being replaced by CVS pharmacies, which carry some food, but not fresh produce or meats.

“Ironically, even though we are the entity that represents soup kitchens, they aren’t the answer to poverty,” Berg said.

The answer lies in bringing more supermarkets into low-income neighborhoods, encouraging people to use Food Stamp programs and ensuring that farmers’ markets accept them, he said.

Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) works on educating people on Food Stamp programs and urging them to apply if they qualify. A family of four earning less than $25,000 a year is eligible for approximately $200 a month in food stamps, Gioia said.

“This hunger is a problem we can end, not in our lifetime, but this decade,” he said. “Childhood and senior hunger is a real problem and it’s invisible.”

He said problems with obesity in poor neighborhoods can appear to be misleading when those neighborhoods are in fact the City’s centers of malnutrition.

Gioia, Speaker Christine Quinn, and City Council members are touring the City’s public schools this month as part of Food Today, Healthy Tomorrow, a campaign to increase food assistance program enrollment.

Providing monetary means is the first step in giving people a chance to make better nutritional choices.

“Fresh fruits and vegetables should not be a luxury,” he said. “It’s a daily necessity.”