New York City Voters Support Municipal Grocery Stores
It’s Time for Public Sector Grocery Stores
Key Takeaways
New polling shows that 85% of New Yorkers are paying more for groceries and food now compared to last year and 91% of New Yorkers are concerned about how inflation impacts how much they pay to get food on the table.
Two-thirds of New Yorkers polled (66%) support the creation of municipal grocery stores in New York City, including a strong majority of Democrats (72%), as well as a majority of Independents (64%) and Republicans (54%).
Building diverse, resilient and high quality food supply chains can help empower workers, address racial and economic injustice, repair the environment, and ensure all people have access to good, healthy food.
Values-based procurement could create multiple health and environmental benefits by supporting worker dignity and safety, animal welfare, community economic benefit, local sourcing, sustainable agricultural practices, nutrition, and culturally appropriate food availability.
The rising cost of groceries has driven nearly 50 million people in the United States to skip meals, eat less, and trade down to lower quality items or to use food banks to fill their pantry gaps, and New York City is no exception. With more households going hungry and food supply chains destabilized by climate-related disasters from drought to increasing food-borne illnesses, building diverse, resilient, and high quality food systems that brings down costs for households represents climate action that immediately relieves the everyday burden of getting food on the table.
Municipal grocery stores present a huge opportunity to bring down grocery bills for working class households while also subsidizing and bolstering high quality, stable, and affordable food supply chains. This idea is already popular in New York City. New polling from Climate and Community Institute and Data for Progress shows that two-thirds of New Yorkers polled (66%) support the creation of municipal grocery stores in New York City, including a strong majority of Democrats (72%), as well as a majority of Independents (64%) and Republicans (54%).
Public sector grocery stores could therefore be a part of an expansive, holistic tool kit to repair and reorganize New York City’s food supply into one based on solidarity and sustainability that provides plenty for everyone. As food prices climb and government officials claim people in the US no longer need cheap consumer goods, there couldn’t be a better time for public sector grocery stores.
