Tag Archives: South Bronx

Fresh food for the Bronx

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The availability of fresh food in the Bronx has been a major concern of the residents for a long time. Projects like “GrowNYC” or the “Green Bronx Machine”  try to provide people with fresh food grown in upstate New York and the Bronx.

“Our food is grown by students in hub houses or green houses,” said project manager Steven Ritz on an education conference on Saturday. The city introduced food stamps to support underprivileged people eating fresh food. New Yorkers can get online help for their food stamp application.

The Harvest Home Mt. Eden Farmers Market is one of 18 farmer markets in the Bronx. Every Thursday from May to November, people from the neighborhood come to the market to get fruits, vegetables and – the most popular product – corn. The corn is grown by farmers from upstate New York and the seeds they are using turn into very sweet corn costumers don’t find in the rest of the city, said market manager Rob Lahr. “But now the corn season has ended,” he said.

David Frye, 47, and his colleague Raymond Hare, 53 came all the way from West Virginia, to sell their apples to the Bronxites. It’s their second year at the market. “We did not want to come this year,  but the market owner she kept calling us asking if we could come, because there was no fresh food.”


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Social Media Diary

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  • On September 22nd, I posted my question on Twitter and linked to my blog post in the following tweet:

Tweet

I used the hashtags #USPS, #postoffice, #SouthBronx, #Bronx, and #jobs as they seemed like they were the most relevant that would garner the most amount of hits.  I however failed in attracting any response.

After I didn’t receive any reply to this either, I started to wonder if there were better hashtags for the Bronx and the South Bronx, and found out that people use #bx as a Bronx hashtag.

I tried using some other hashtags, and rephrasing my query in order to attract possibly business owners in the South Bronx.  I still did not unfortunately receive any response. Because so much of the South Bronx’s population is living under the poverty line, I think it is safe to assume that a lot of them have very limited internet access. A lot of the unemployed people of the South Bronx (who are the people who I am most interested in speaking with, in all likely-hood do not peruse Twitter).

  • On October 5th, I posted the following on Flickr to promote my question and blog post:

I posted my question and link in the description of the photo, and added relevant tags (Melrose, South Bronx, Post Office, USPS…).

Elderly Residents of Melrose Lament Possible Loss of Post Office

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The possible closure of their post office will mean more than a loss of jobs for residents of Melrose.

The US Postal Service has announced a list of post offices due to close by year-end, which will inevitably mean layoffs for postal workers.

Photo by Alex Robinson

The Melcourt Post Office, situated on Melrose Ave, is one of the branches facing the axe. This could mean the two main employees of the branch could lose their jobs, but Branch Manager Tinka Williams is not worried. “I have 20-something years in, so they have to find me some place. They can’t just lay me off,” said Williams.

Williams said she is more concerned about how the branch closure will affect the residents of the neighborhood.

“It’s a bad thing for the area, because we have a lot of elderly people around here and they need this. This is close to them, and easy to get to,” she said.

With the closure, elderly residents of Melrose will find themselves without somewhere to do essential things such as paying bills.

Ethel Griffith, a 63-year-old retiree of the community said she is at a loss as to how she will cope without it.

“I send my checks for my rent, my check for my light and gas, my cable. I send my checks from here,” she said.

For the many residents living under the poverty line in Melrose, using the Internet to carry out these functions is not an easy option, as few have Internet access at home.

Proximity is a big issue for the elderly in Melrose, said Williams. Without the Melrose branch nearby, some will have to travel all the way over to the 149th and Grand Concourse branch.

“Please, please don’t close the post office. Leave something for us. Do something for us, please,” pleaded Griffith.

If your local post office closes, how will it affect you?