Green Cart Proposal Takes On Harlem Health
Columbia Spectator
Lilliam Lara assembles piles of fresh produce behind the counter at Stephanie Grocery at 116th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Her daughter, after whom the store is named, stands at the cashier, surrounded by a colorful array of tomatoes, avocados, bananas, and grapes, as well as the usual hodgepodge of chips, cans of Coca-Cola, and six-packs of beer.
Lara, one of over 400 Harlem bodega owners, said nutritional options in Upper Manhattan are lacking, despite her efforts to bring them to the neighborhood. “In this area they forget about health,” she said in Spanish. “Many people suffer.”
Yet with a new City Council proposal to increase the number of street vendors selling produce in areas where individuals eat fewer than the recommended five servings of fruit and vegetables per day, concerns like Lara’s may soon diminish. Read Full Story.
Posted on February 2, 2008 by Grace A Ali