The best of the Hunts Point food markets and business community was once again on display when the Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation threw its 22nd Annual Tent Party.
The tent party took place on Thursday, October 15 at the produce market, and despite heavy rains, was alive with food samples and demonstrations from those who do business on the Hunts Point peninsula.
The event honored five businesses and organizations that help Hunts Point continue as a vibrant place to do business: D’Arrgio Brothers Produce, Baldor Specialty Foods, Taconic Investment Partners – Denham Wolf Real Estate of The Banknote, Fierman Produce Exchange, and members of Community Board 2.
“The honorees we have here today are trademarks in the United States, if not the world,” Josephine Infante, founder and president of the H.P.E.D.C., said at the party. “This market feeds 20 million people in the tri-state area.”
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. was the keynote speaker, and he spoke about the need for the borough to receive its fair share of stimulus dollars and other monies from the federal government for highway and infrastructure improvements.
Diaz said in his remarks that he had met recently with senators Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, as well as with the Bronx’s congressional delegation in the House of Representatives, and former Borough President Adolfo Carrion, who is now White House director of Urban Policy. Infrastructure improvements, he said, was one of the topics discussed.
“I told them that we need to invest some stimulus funds in the produce market in Hunts Point [for modernization],” Diaz stated in his remarks. “I think that the response was favorable.”
Diaz also spoke of the need to invest in green jobs as one way to reduce the borough’s relatively high unemployment rate.
“We know the borough of the Bronx continues to be the borough with the highest unemployment and poverty rates,” Diaz said in his remarks. “I am sick coming in first in those categories.”
The award winners were especially grateful for the honors bestowed upon them. When it was said in the program that D’Arrigo Brothers produce has stuck by Hunts Point when it could have relocated elsewhere, simply the idea of relocating was unthinkable to Matthew D’Arrigo.
“We cannot move from Hunts Point and do not want to move from Hunts Point,” D’Arrigo said. “I appreciate everything that the Hunts Point Economic Development Corporation has done over the years.”
