Key takeaways
- Closures of FFV vendors continue to disproportionately impact Chinese and immigrant communities, who have already been uniquely affected by the pandemic (both its social/economic impact, and xenaphobia)
- FFV vendors across NYC are starting to rebound and re-open, particularly Chinatown and Sunset Park. New FFV vendors have played an important role in supporting this rebound.
- Social and economic policies are urgently needed to help support FFV vendors to manage the shock of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
- Fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) vendors are a crucial part of the food environment in urban centers such as New York City (NYC)
- FFV vendors are typically smaller in scale and have a stronger community focus compared to larger restaurant or retail food establishments. They encompass various types, such as chain or independent supermarkets, specialized greengrocers, sidewalk stands (also known as “storefronts,” or areas in front of stores used to sell fresh fruits and vegetables), mobile street carts, and even temporary setups dedicated to selling fresh fruits and vegetables.
- FFV vendors were particularly affected by the the social and economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, as they often lack the financial infrastructure to withstand supply and demand changes induced by such crises.
- Chinese and other immigrant communities particularly reliant on FFV vendors were also the same ones uniquely impacted by social/economic consequences of COVID-19, along with the additional burden of xenaphobia induced by the pandemic
The NYU Covid Closures (CoClo) Study
- The NYU Covid Closures (CoClo) Study aimed to understand the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the closures of FFV vendors, restaurants, and grocery stores in NYC. The initial study focused on comparing the food retail environment in 2019 (pre-pandemic) with 2020 (during-pandemic).
- Findings revealed a high degree of FFV vendors closures across NYC, but particularly in Chinese and immigrant neighborhoods (notably Chinatown and Sunset park)
- Analyses were presented in-language to community members and
policy makers through data briefs/presentations:
- English data brief: Changes to the Food Retail Environment due to COVID-19: A Snapshot of the NYC Experience, May to July 2020
- Chinese data brief: 由于新冠狀病毒大流行而导致的食品零售环境的变化: 分析纽约市的经验,2020年5月至7月
- Mandarin Chinese data presentation: 【普通话】由于新冠狀病毒大流行而导致的食品零售环境的变化
- Cantonese data presentation: 【广东话】由于新冠狀病毒大流行而导致的食品零售环境的变化
- Analyses were also presented to the scientific
community through publications:
- Ali SH, Imbruce VM, Russo RG, Kaplan S, Stevenson K, Mezzacca TA, Foster V, Radee A, Chong S, Tsui F, Kranick J, Yi SS. Evaluating Closures of Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Vendors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Methodology and Preliminary Results Using Omnidirectional Street View Imagery. JMIR Form Res. 2021;5(2):e23870. doi: 10.2196/23870.
- Yi SS, Ali SH, Russo RG, Foster V, Radee A, Chong S, Tsui F, Kranick J, Lee D, Imbruce V, Mezzacca TA. COVID-19 Leads to Dramatic Changes in the Food Retail Environment in New York City: May-July 2020 J Immigr Minor Health. 2022;24(1):31-37. doi: 10.1007/s10903-021-01230-7.]
- Russo RG, Ali SH, Mezzacca TA, Radee A, Chong S, Kranick J, Tsui F, Foster V, Kown SC, Yi SS. Assessing changes in the food retail environment during the COVID-19 pandemic: opportunities, challenges, and lessons learned. BMC Public Health. 2022;22(1):778. doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12890-x.
- Building on these initial findings, additional data collection was conducted in 2021 and 2023 to assess the long-term impact of the pandemic on FFV vendors particularly, and whether the FV retail environment has started to bounce back since the onset of the pandemic
How the study was conducted
- 8 neighborhoods were selected across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx for this study, reflecting approximately 1.2 million people and 52 square kilometers and comprising communities with large high-income, low-income, and Chinese populations: Chinatown, East Harlem, Upper East Side, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Brownsville, Flushing, and South Bronx.
- Baseline assessment: Identify FFV vendors open in
2019
- Omnidirectional streetview imagery from 2019 (Google Streetview, Apple Look Around) was used to virtually walk through each neighborhood and manually identify all FFV vendors in each neighborhood
- Followup assessments: Evaluate whether FFV vendors remained
open in 2020, 2021, and 2023
- In-person assessments were conducted by study team to evaluate whether identified FFV vendors were still present and open at different yearly time points. In 2023, new vendors (not seen in 2019) were also identified. These vendors are listed as ‘unknown’ status for 2020 and 2021 in the interactive map below.
- Further details on the study methods are described in: Ali et al. (2021)
Interactive Map
- Between 2019-2023, a total of 203 vendors were identified across the 8 studied neighborhoods.
- The geographic distribution of FFV vendors differed significantly across neighborhoods. In some neighborhoods, FFV vendors were clustered around specific streets whereas in others, they were more scattered across the neighborhood
- Check out the the below interactive map to explore how the FFV vendor environment changed across different years. Click on a point for more information on its status in each year of data collection.
Overall findings
- Vendors starting to gradually opening up again: Although in 2020 and 2021 respectively only 76 and 87 of the FFV vendors identified in 2019 were present and operating, by 2023, 109 of these original vendors were observed to be present and operating, along with 46 new vendors.
- Chinese neighborhoods (Chinatown, Sunset Park, Flushing) key hotspots for FFV vendors: Findings on the high prevalence of FFV vendors in Chinese and immigrant communities evidences the social (and ultimately nutritional) significance of these vendors in these communities.
- New FFV vendors were opened in 2023: There were 76 FFV vendors in 2020 and 87 FFV vendors present in 2019 across eight NYC community districts. By 2023, there were 109 FFV vendors present and operating, in addition to 46 new FFV vendors
Neighborhood-specific findings
- Trends in re-openings differed across neighborhoods: While FFV vendors were observed to progressively re-open across timepoints in some neighborhoods (e.g. Flushing, South Bronx), in others less re-openings were observed (e.g. Upper East Side) or trends were more sporadic (e.g. Park Slope)
- Emergence of new vendors: New vendors were particularly prevalent in Chinatown and Sunset Park, helping to replace the gap left by some of the long-standing vendors that stopped operating after the pandemic
- Disparities in prevalence of FFV vendors: While some neighborhoods report many FFV vendors (notably Chinatown and Sunset Park), others only contained a handful of FFV vendors (notably Park Slope and Brownsville)
Contact Us
For more information about this study, please contact
Dr. Stella Yi (Principal Investigator, NYU CoClo Study): Stella.Yi@nyulangone.org