SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In areas like the North Valley and Southside, access to fresh, affordable food can be limited. According to a City of Syracuse fact sheet and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the area includes seven low-income, low-access census tracts, making it one of the largest food deserts in upstate New York.
Many people say the lack of full-service grocery stores leaves many relying on smaller corner stores that often carry fewer healthy options.
“A lot of these corner stores, as good as they are, we need to serve people a lot more fruits and vegetables and things like that,” said Gabriel Baker, a Syracuse shopper. “We can’t survive off pizza and wings and fries as much as we want to — we can’t.”…