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NYC Officials OK Supermarket Incentives

The City Planning Commission here has voted unanimously to adopt a program providing financial and zoning incentives for supermarkets in underserved communities.

NEW YORK — The City Planning Commission here has voted unanimously to adopt a program providing financial and zoning incentives for supermarkets in underserved communities.

The FRESH program “will bring fresh food choices into over 45 underserved and low-income communities and importantly, also bring jobs to those neighborhoods,” Amanda Burden, planning commissioner, said in a statement. “Our goal has been to create an environment where New Yorkers can maintain a healthy lifestyle and where grocery store operators can more easily find opportunities to open new stores.”

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500 — an early supporter of the initiative — on Thursday denounced the commission for having approved the program without also adopting guidelines that would make incentives available only to what the union called “responsible” employers. The UFCW said it would launch an effort to inform member of City Council about flaws in the FRESH initiative.

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