A visit to Central New York is on tap for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand this afternoon to announce her bill to incentivize grocery stores to establish locations in underserved communities.
Gillibrand will be joined in Syracuse by Mayor Ben Walsh and will speak about her legislation that would look to help end food deserts, which are areas where a significant portion of residents don’t have easy access to a grocery store and affordable, nutritious food. Instead, Gillibrand said they are forced to rely on corner and convenience stores, which often sell little to no fresh produce, meat, or dairy and whose prices are higher than those of a typical supermarket.
Gillibrand’s legislation would provide $50 million annually in mandatory federal funding to incentivize grocery stores to establish locations in underserved communities, such as Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood, which has lacked a large grocery store since the local Tops supermarket shut down in 2018.
