For many years, community advocates, researchers and nonprofit groups have studied and written about East Harlem.  To make some of this information more readily available to those working to improve East Harlem, the New York City Food Policy Center conducted a search of needs assessments and food studies done in East Harlem over the period 2003 to 2013.

Why Assess the Needs of the East Harlem Community?

East Harlem is a diverse and vibrant community with specific health and social needs. Assessing the needs of the community can help better inform the design of policies, programs and services for East Harlem residents. The New York City Food Policy Center conducted a search of needs assessments and food studies done in East Harlem over the period 2003-2013. We found a total of 19 assessments and food studies conducted by different groups, organizations and academics. The assessments covers over an 11-year span and encompass four main topics: Food Needs, Health Care Access, Opportunities for Physical Activity and Historic Preservation. We recommend that future projects to improve life in East Harlem consider findings of these previous assessments of East Harlem and ensure that any future needs assessment contribute new knowledge on what needs to be done rather than simply repeat studies that have already been done.

If you know about health or food needs assessment studies conducted in East Harlem that are not included here, please send the study or a reference to [email protected].

Download a brief summary of these 19 needs assessments

View a summary table of findings

Key Findings and Recommendations

Click the link below for more information by topic area:

Download this list of resources

• Baragona T, Chiu A, Loveman K, Marconi E,  Poole A,  Ranney A, Ripple S,  Song M. East Harlem; Preserving the Working Man’s Manhattan. Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Historic Preservation Studio II: Spring 2011.
• Costa P. Community Board 11: East Harlem Retail Analysis.  No date.
• Diaz H, Johnson  K, Lissar N, O’Toole L, Collignon KD. A Community Engagement Study of East Harlem and the Upper East Side NYU Capstone Final Report . New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. May 2011.
• Dwyer JC. Hunger and Obesity in East Harlem. 2005.
• Edwards TA, Jandorf L, Freemantle H, et al. Cancer care in East and Central Harlem: community partnership needs assessment. J Cancer Educ. 2013;28(1):171-178. doi:10.1007/s13187-012-0430-4.
• Fox AM, Mann DM, Ramos MA, Kleinman LC, Horowitz CR. Barriers to Physical Activity in East Harlem, New York. Journal of Obesity. 2012;2012. doi:10.1155/2012/719140.
• Galvez MP, McGovern K, Knuff C, et al. Associations Between Neighborhood Resources and Physical Activity in Inner-City Minority Children. Academic Pediatrics. 2013;13(1):20-26. doi:10.1016/j.acap.2012.09.001.
• Galvez MP, Hong L, Choi E, Liao L, Godbold J, Brenner B. Childhood Obesity and Neighborhood Food Store Availability in an Inner City Community. Acad Pediatr. 2009;9(5):339-343. doi:10.1016/j.acap.2009.05.003.
• Galvez MP, Morland K, Raines C, et al. Race and food store availability in an inner-city neighbourhood. Public Health Nutr. 2008;11(6):624-631. doi:10.1017/S1368980007001097.
• Gordon C, Ghai N, Purciel M, Talwalkar A, Goodman A. Eating Well in Harlem: How Available Is Healthy Food? New York City Department of Health; 2007.
• Horowitz CR, Arniella A, James S, Bickell NA. Using community-based participatory research to reduce health disparities in East and Central Harlem. Mt Sinai J Med. 2004;71(6):368-374.
• Horowitz CR, Goldfinger JZ, Muller SE, et al. A Model for Using Community-Based Participatory Research to Address the Diabetes Epidemic in East Harlem. Mt Sinai J Med. 2008;75(1):13-21. doi:10.1002/msj.20017
• Horowitz CR, Williams L, Bickell NA. A Community-centered Approach to Diabetes in East Harlem. J Gen Intern Med. 2003;18(7):542-548. doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.21028.x.
•  Jandorf L, Fatone A, Borker PV, Levin M, Esmond WA, Brenner B, Butts G, Redd WH. Creating alliances to improve cancer prevention and detection among urban medically underserved minority groups. The East Harlem Partnership for Cancer Awareness. Cancer. 2006;107(8 Suppl):2043-51.
• Kleinman LC, Lutz D, Plumb EJ, Barkley P, Nazario HR, Ramos MA, Horowitz CR. A partnered approach for structured observation to assess the environment of a neighborhood with high diabetes rates. Prog Community Health Partnersh. 2011;5(3):249-59.
• New York-Presbyterian Hospital. 2008 Community Service Plan Three Year Comprehensive Report. 2008.
• New Yorkers For Parks. East Harlem Open Space Index. 2012.
• City of New York Parks & Recreation. Greening East Harlem: A Community Forestry Management Plan. 2006.
• NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. 2013 Community Health Needs Assessment and Implementation Strategy–Harlem Hopsital Center. 2013.

Come across other useful resources? Please send us the link at [email protected].