Eating In, Eating Out,
Eating Well:
Access to Healthy Food in North
and Central Brooklyn
1. Bodegas are common: about 8 in 10 food stores in Bedford-Stuyvesant
and Bushwick are bodegas.
• While offering convenient locations and hours, bodegas carry a narrower range
of products at higher prices than supermarkets and other stores.
• Supermarkets offer more choices, but are less common and less accessible.
2. Healthy foods can be hard to find.
• Only 1 in 3 bodegas sells reduced-fat milk, compared with 9 in 10 supermarkets.
• About 28% of bodegas carry apples, oranges, and bananas, compared with 91% of
supermarkets.
• Leafy green vegetables are available at few bodegas (about 1 in 10).
3. Storefront advertisements heavily promote unhealthy products.
• Storefront ads for sugary juices, energy drinks, and alcoholic beverages are plentiful.
• 42% of bodegas carry tobacco ads.
4. Healthy eating strategies should take restaurants into account.
• Almost 3 out of every 4 neighborhood restaurants sell only take-out food.
• Pizza parlors and Chinese and Latin American restaurants are the common types.
• National fast-food chains make up about 13% of the area’s 168 restaurants.
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to the following contributors, including staff from the Brooklyn District Public Health and Cornell University Cooperative
Extension (New York City Branch): Jenny Carol Aguilera, Kelly Cantor, Estela Gonzalez, Christina Larkin, Mirian Nunez, Kwame
Boakye-Yiadom, Kesha Crichlow, Sandra Guzman, Carol Parker-Duncanson, Evelyn Espinal, Gloribeth Cancel, Evelyn Ortiz, Leighton
Hewitt, Philip Noyes, Ronica Webb, Ernesha Webb.
Appreciation is expressed to the Publications Group of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene for editorial services
and design of this report: Cortnie Lowe, M.F.A., Director; Caroline Carney, Managing Editor, and Judith Levine, Senior Editor.
Suggested citation: Graham R, Kaufman L, Novoa Z, Karpati A. Eating in, eating out, eating well: Access to healthy food in North and
Central