The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide. Click here to Find Good Food.

“Unfortunately, while more and more chickens are cage free, many workers are still caged.”  Bruce Both, President, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1500 – December 7, 2009

Last May, when New York politicians announced zoning changes and tax incentives to address the huge problem of food access — or lack thereof — in many New York City neighborhoods, food advocates and community activists thought the plan could be improved.  They quickly mobilized and today, the new, improved, Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) bill is slated for passage by the New York City Council.

City officials estimate that the FRESH program will help build 15 new grocery stores and upgrade 10 existing stores over ten years, while creating 1,100 new jobs and retaining 400 more. The program’s financial incentives include real estate tax abatements, as well as tax exemptions on materials used to construct, renovate or equip grocery stores.  These publicly financed benefits will be available to store owners in low-income neighborhoods throughout New York City that lack sufficient supermarkets.

Meanwhile, the city’s zoning law will be revised to allow residential developers to build slightly bigger buildings if they include space for a neighborhood grocer on the ground floor.  These zoning incentives will be available in four New York City neighborhoods: the South Bronx, Upper Manhattan, Central Brooklyn and Downtown Jamaica, Queens.  Additional zoning changes will make it easier for grocery stores to be built in light manufacturing districts, where, until now, they were required to obtain a special permit. The new zoning will also reduce the cost of developing grocery stores by reducing the parking that a store is required to build when locating on pedestrian streets.

All of this sounds pretty good, right?  Still, members of the Good Food, Good Jobs Coalition, made up of dozens of labor and community organizations, knew it could be better.  They lobbied tirelessly over the past six months to insert the concerns of workers and working class New Yorkers into the final legislation that is expected to pass today.

The coalition focused their efforts on three key points:

• Making sure that stores that receive FRESH incentives are affordable to low income New Yorkers;

• Giving the community in which stores want to locate a say in considering whether to grant applications for the zoning incentives; and

• Pressuring stores that receive FRESH benefits to provide jobs with fair wages and benefits.

While they didn’t get everything they wanted, thanks to the coalition’s hard work, the final FRESH legislation includes standards designed to make stores that benefit from the program more accountable to the communities they serve:

• All stores that are built or upgraded under the FRESH program will be required to apply to the EBT (Food Stamps) and WIC (the Women, Infant and Children) supplemental nutrition programs to accept these forms of payment.

• To guard against exploitative labor practices, stores will be required to answer questions about their relations with employees before receiving financial subsidies, with the answers posted online so that community and labor watchdogs can effectively weigh in on those decisions, before program applicants are approved or rejected by the city’s Industrial Development Agency.

• Stores that want to take advantage of the zoning incentives will be required to first meet with the local community board, with the board submitting recommendations to the City Planning Department before approval.

On Monday, the coalition hosted a standing-room-only meeting to celebrate their success in having these standards written into the final bill.

With perhaps 500 people attending, Bruce Both, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1500, which represents 23,000 New Yorkers, said “Unless we bring in the concerns of working class people we will not be able to pursue the sustainable food movement in any meaningful way.” Noting the importance of closely scrutinizing business practices, he added, “Even if a store sells fair trade coffee, does that mean it’s fair to its workers?  Businesses that stand to benefit from public subsidies should be held accountable to the public.”

Sustainable chef and food advocate Dan Barber agreed, telling the crowd, “It is time for this movement to broaden its base.”  He also made a pitch for home cooking, noting how much of the environmental damage caused by food comes from processing and packaging.  “None of the issues related to sustainable food will be solved if people don’t cook,” Barber said.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn ending the meeting by announcing “Food Works New York,” a six month planning initiative to comprehensively link jobs, health, and environmental issues with food for New York City and the surrounding region.

Using the example of romaine lettuce, Quinn noted that, while the city Education Department now buys a huge quantity of lettuce for school salad bars, every bit of it comes from California or Maryland.

“New York City is the largest institutional buyer of food outside aside from the military,” Quinn said. “Right now we have identified famers in Rockland County [which is just 12 miles northwest of the city] who would love to supply New York City’s schools with lettuce, but they can’t. Why not?  Because we don’t have a wash and bag facility in any of the five boroughs – something that we could build to create jobs and support our local economy.  We talk a lot in New York City about getting food to poor people, which is a good thing.  Let’s also use food to get people jobs, so that they can afford to feed their families.”

Well, one thing’s for sure. While Quinn and the city council pursue Food Works New York, members of the Good Jobs Good Food coalition will be right there, looking over their shoulders, keeping them on the right track.