More than half of New York families have taken on debt this year just to keep food on the table: 53 percent statewide and 52 percent in the five boroughs, according to a 2026 No Kid Hungry New York poll. Years of rising inflation, wholesale costs, supply chain disruption, and corporate consolidation have pushed grocery prices past what paychecks can cover for New Yorkers across a broad swath of the income spectrum. Federal cuts to SNAP and WIC are only tightening the squeeze for New York’s lowest-income residents. Where the private market and the federal government have failed New Yorkers, New York City is stepping in with a solution.
N.Y.C. Groceries, an initiative championed by the Mamdani administration, positions access to affordable, fresh, and healthy food as a public good. It has the potential to be truly transformative—addressing the pinch New Yorkers feel weekly at checkout while building a stronger, more resilient food ecosystem for the whole city.
The supermarkets will provide a 30 percent savings across a broad range of essential, commonly purchased items—what the City is calling the “Core Basket”: produce, meat and seafood, and other staples. That’s not just relief at checkout. It’s the ability for a family to plan on putting good food on the table, week after week.
Affordability is also a labor issue: workers need wages and benefits that let them meet their basic needs. N.Y.C. Groceries will require the yet-to-be-chosen operator(s) to provide workers with union-level wages and benefits and to sign a Labor Peace Agreement so employees can organize freely. That’s a strong foundation for real union jobs at the center of this initiative, tackling affordability from both sides of the register.
A defining feature of the initiative is its universal design. Access to healthy, affordable food for New Yorkers of every income level isn’t an oversight—it’s the strategy that makes N.Y.C. Groceries durable. Means-tested programs are often the first on the chopping block when budgets tighten or administrations change. By serving everyone, these supermarkets become part of the fabric of New York life—a logic of public infrastructure that New Yorkers accept every time they tap into the subway or visit a public library.
Five stores are set to open by the end of Mayor Mamdani’s first term. There’s much still to learn, and the Groceries For All Coalition is already advocating to the City to help shape what comes next. Here are a few of the essential elements and examples our coalition has shared with the administration.
There’s a long-standing and highly successful precedent: the U.S. military commissary system. Dating back to the late 1800s and administered by the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), military commissaries guarantee service members and their families a minimum 23.7 percent savings on all store items over commercial prices by law—a promise backed by consistent federal funding across roughly 235 stores worldwide. This is an all‑in approach and the north star example the City should build toward.
Five stores is a foundation, not a ceiling. Real purchasing power—and real citywide reach—will come from an expanded, coordinated network of 20 or more stores, plus services like delivery that provide access to all New Yorkers by addressing transportation barriers, the needs of people with mobility challenges, and parents of young children.
And this can’t stop at City-run stores. Bodegas and independent grocers are just as vital to food access in our communities. The Groceries For All Coalition believes real, system-wide progress means expanding resources for food cooperatives, offering technical assistance and direct support to existing operators, and building supply chain ties with local and regional partners—strengthening the whole ecosystem, not just one part of it.
For the New Yorkers going into debt just to keep food on the table, N.Y.C. Groceries is proof that this City sees the crisis and is willing to take bold action—not with temporary fixes, but with something built to last. Community Food Advocates and the Groceries For All Coalition believe in the power of government to be a force for public good and are committed to helping the City build a successful model at the scale this moment demands. New Yorkers have gone into debt over milk and eggs for too long. It’s time City Hall made sure they never have to again.