Common Council Member Zeneta Everhart grew up on the East Side and knows firsthand what it’s like to have limited access to fresh, healthy food. The issue of food access is “personal” to her. “This is really the development of our children and our babies and of our future.
Our future is based upon whether or not our children have food to eat,” Everhart said. That’s why Everhart was at the side of U.S.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand at the Delavan-Grider Community Center in January as the senator announced her plan to increase funding for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative and use some of the funding to build more grocery stores on Buffalo’s East Side. U.
S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, second from left, at the Delavan-Grider Community Center in Buffalo.
Common Council Member Zeneta Everhart is at her left. Gillibrand has proposed legislation that would incentivize fresh food retailers in underserved communities. Gillibrand is working on securing up to $50 million in funding that would help incentivize grocery stores to open in underserved areas .
Her office says she is in conversation with nonprofits and private grocer chains. Gov. Kathy Hochul also pledged $10 million to develop and upgrade supermarkets , food co-ops, farm stands and food stores in underserved areas throughout the state.
The application period is open through Nov. 22. The lack of supermarkets and the attendant lack of healthy food in stores in certain parts of communities has come to be known as “food.
