By: Malina Seenarine
On a cold Saturday morning in December Ramdat Singh leads volunteers to set up a holiday food distribution event at his old elementary school multi-purpose room in Norwood, Bronx. The district leader for the 81st assembly district who grew up five blocks away from P.S 094 chatted with members of the community as they collected staple items like chickpeas, coconut water, and chicken bouillon, familiar foods for the Caribbean and Latino population in the area.
There was enough food to cater for three hundred families but, with more people coming than expected, volunteers had to reduce the number of items they were giving to each family to accommodate everyone.
“Over the past years what I’ve seen is the lines or the participation has gotten bigger and the access to resources has diminished,” said Singh, who has been working to organize food pantries for the past three years.
While reaching out for donations for the distribution event Sigh contacted companies looking for fresh produce like onions and potatoes and while they were willing to donate, other organizations had already called about receiving similar foods and they didn’t have any more resources to give.
81st Assembly District Leader Ramdat Singh with his co-leader Abigail Martin and volunteers
When it comes to health outcomes, the Bronx ranks last out of the sixty-two counties in New York State. Immigrant communities have historically faced higher risks of chronic diseases, such as obesity and heart disease compared to white communities. In the Bronx, over a million people identify as Latino and/or Caribbean.
While healthier food options and both cultural restaurants and supermarkets can be seen throughout neighborhoods in the Bronx the problem is more than just food access.
The director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute says the issue is a matter of poverty that exists in minority neighborhoods.
“Food insecurity isn’t a function of the proximity to supermarkets. It’s a function of low income,” he said. He goes on to say that because many immigrant communities may have limited language proficiency and not have legal work status, the jobs open to them tend to pay low wages and as a result, they may not be able to put food on the table.”
Singh has seen this problem further exacerbated by the pandemic. Many undocumented immigrants were unable to apply for pandemic relief; since they could not work, they struggled with buying food.
In New York City, undocumented immigrants make up over three-quarters of the labor force compared to the U.S.-born population. Despite this, the average earning for undocumented immigrants is $25,300 compared to $45,000 for those born here.
Growing up in Norwood, Singh’s community consisted of immigrants from different backgrounds, some of them undocumented according to Singh. This includes his parents who immigrated to the Bronx from Guyana back in the 1980s. There were other Guyanese families that also just arrived in America along with Puerto Rico and Dominican immigrants who lived on his street.
In the community, people looked out for one another. Singh recalls being babysat by his neighborhood when he was a child and tutoring the other kids in the neighborhoods
“I grew up with a sense of community, where everybody was kind of going through the same thing and kind of came together to help each other,” he said.
To combat food waste and make sure members of the community are only getting food that they will eat, Singh emphasizes the importance of culturally responsive food. Food pantries often package food in bags, giving everyone the same things but, Singh wants people to see what they’re getting so everything is laid out for them to choose from.
“You want to offer some products that are cultural and you know they’ll trust.”
Around Thanksgiving, Singh helped organize a food distribution event at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community Center in the South Bronx. Although there were staple Thanksgiving foods there like Turkey, Singh also offered community members ham and chicken, noting that his parents didn’t even know what turkey was until they came to the United States.
The community center’s director, Edwin Scott was the first in his position to agree to food distribution days at Sotomayor.
“This is what I do how dare I say no to families and communities and individuals in need,” he said. Scott has been the director for almost two years.
Distributions events aren’t only for food. They also provide coats and PPE equipment like hand sanitizer and masks. They also have service providers who can help members of the community get health insurance, free cable, and other basic services.
Scott explains that more can be done when people and organizations come together to give to the community. Scott has built partnerships with the Caribbean Equality Project and community leaders like Singh.
“By creating partnerships and networking and opportunities to work with people, you get more accomplished,” said Scott. This also allows for more inclusivity, as different organizations bring in different people.
Although food insecurity in minority neighborhoods in the Bronx is due to failed policy issues, Scott says the best want to enact change is from a bottom-up approach, which starts with grassroots organizations advocating for the community and at a political level.
“We’re not going to get it from up, down so let’s push up,” he said. “Let’s get more aware, more conscientious, doing more of those things that promote healthier eating, getting more access, erasing and eliminating those blocks and those obstacles.”