By Bridget Goldschmidt
12/18/2024
With a congestion pricing plan that would charge a toll for vehicles traveling into or within the central business district of Manhattan slated for implementation in January 2025, a newly formed coalition of more than 100 food distributors, trade associations, wholesale markets, food banks, restaurateurs and small businesses, led by Bronx, N.Y.-based Baldor Specialty Foods, is urging that they be exempted from the plan. Coalition members include Chefs’ Warehouse, Crafted Hospitality, e-grocer FreshDirect, Acme Smoked Fish and Pierless Fish.
According to the group, while reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality are key goals, they shouldn’t come at the expense of New York City’s food supply chain, small businesses, public-health efforts or hunger relief efforts. In a letter sent to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office last week, the coalition laid out its chief concerns regarding the plan: that more than 60% of New York City’s produce comes through the Bronx’s Hunts Point Market, with trucks as the only viable distribution method; the financial strain on local business, which is likely to raise prices across the supply chain, ultimately burdening consumers; and higher costs or lower availability of healthy foods potentially having a disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations, undermining the city’s public-health goals.
Read full article online: https://progressivegrocer.com/nyc-food-industry-calls-exemptions-congestion-pricing
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