An innovative exhibition tackling food inequity in New York City.
A project for Art, Design, and Politics at Fordham University, this imagined exhibition is a hybrid community space and exhibition space highlighting and addressing food inequity in New York City. Through cooking classes and food pantries, the space directly fights against food inequity in New York by working to establish self-sufficiency in people facing food insecurity. Through documentary photography, the exhibition highlights the inequity in food quality and accessibility in areas with differing social, economic, and racial demographics.
Upon moving to the Bronx for college, it quickly became obvious to me how difficult it was to find affordable, good-quality groceries locally. I found myself commuting to Manhattan to do my weekly grocery shopping; making a trip to Trader Joe’s as opposed to shopping at the grocery store across the street from my campus saved me hundreds of dollars a month. I was fortunate enough to have the time to make such a trip, but that is not a reality for people living in food swamps or food desserts. This experience, along with an interview I conducted with food equity activist Ora Kemp for the Feeding Uptown podcast, led to Access and Excess.
Access and Excess started as a photography exhibition meant to visually compare grocery stores across New York City. By pairing food photography from two grocery stores in starkly different areas—Whole Foods in Columbus Circle and Cherry Valley in Belmont, Bronx—the difference in food quality and access according to racial and economic demographics would be exaggerated. But it soon became more than that—incorporating cooking workshops to directly address food insecurity. Think of it like this—the space has two “modes,” exhibition mode and workshop mode.
"Neighborhoods where bodegas outnumber supermarkets," by NY City Lens. The Cherry Valley I photographed is located in Belmont, where the ratio is 37 bodegas to every supermarket.Aisle 1: Documentary Photography
I photographed both grocery stores with the goal of highlighting food inequity across New York City, the results of which are displayed on the walls of the exhibition space. Flip through the results below.
This is only a fraction of the green veggies in Whole Foods produce section.
A variety of salads and greens on display in recyclable containers for Whole Foods customers.
A businessman chooses which of the vibrantly colored veggies he will bring home.
The Whole Foods produce section is filled with literal mountains of fruit.
These bananas and pineapples are blemish and plastic free.
A sample of the rotting herbs on the produce shelf at Cherry Valley.
These pre-cut veggies are likely to be less fresh than their Whole Foods counterparts. They are also wrapped in disposable plastic, unlike in Whole Foods, where packaging is either non-existent or recyclable.
In addition to the extra packaging, pre-cut produce also goes bad quicker than whole produce. It is also exposed to more bacteria during the preparation process.
Cherry Valley's bananas are wrapped in disposable plastic.
Though produce does not need to be pretty, the condition of these lemons makes them undesirable to the average customer.
This shelf packed with processed sweets in the middle of Cherry Valley's produce section seems out of place, but it is quite purposeful. It is a prime example of how marginalized communities are purposely pushed to live unhealthy lives.
At Whole Foods, eggs (many of which are organic or pasture raised) are stored in environmentally conscious cardboard cartons.
Yet at Cherry Valley, these mass-produced eggs are stored in styrofoam, which is not recyclable.
Another interesting phenomenon is the difference in prices across supermarkets for the same product. At Whole Foods, Oatly oat milk costs $5.99.
While at Cherry Valley, which serves people of significantly lower socioeconomic status, Oatly costs $2.00 more than at Whole Foods.
The vast majority of the bread at Whole Foods is freshly baked on-site.
Processed grains are packed into the shelves at Cherry Valley.
Aisle 2: Cooking Classes & Recipe Cards
The purpose of this project was not only to highlight food inequity in NYC, but to actively address it. While in “workshop mode,” Access and Excess provides aid to those facing food insecurity with cooking workshops and food pantries that equip people with knowledge about using their available food as best as they can, as well as supplying them with fresh food.
Cooking stations like the one pictured to the right are positioned throughout the space, doubling as a workspace and additional exhibitory tools. During cooking workshops, the screen on the station livestreams an aerial view of the instructor's workspace, making it easy for all participants to follow along, no matter their position in the room. This screen can also be used to replay cooking workshop footage while the space is in exhibition mode.
Part of these workshops is sending participants home with recipe cards so they can replicate meals learned in the program in their homes. Recipe cards are simple and accessible, allowing chefs of any level to easily follow them. Recipe cards are also available for visitors to the exhibition to take home.
Mockups provided by ebhy and rawpixel.com on Freepik