Food Forward NYC
Food forward NYC is a 91 page document that lays out the city’s 10-year food policy plan. The plan explores the effects of COVID-19, the current challenges, the current food system, and current and future food policies. It highlights 5 ambitious goals that the city is aiming to achieve that, if successful, could make life a lot better for much of the population. “While this plan takes a 10-year view, it’s priorities and strategies are informed by today’s crises, both by the vulnerabilities exposed and by the historic efforts - citywide and grassroots- to get relief to the New York’s residents, workers, and businesses.”
New York’s Food system is omnipresent in that approximately 19 billion pounds of food flow through NYC every year from around the world and across the country. It is “the product of a complex global supply chain that grows, processes, and distributes food, and a rich local food economy that prepares food for purchase and disposes of food waste” Yet, this essential system has no centralized design or management, and that is why it is so vulnerable in a time of crises. I think what the pandemic showed everyone, whether you live in New York or not, how much we take for granted the access to food we have on a daily basis, and how fragile that access is.
It is a part of our everyday life, it is essential, we need to treat it as such. The plan recognizes that food equates to physical and mental health, culture, and jobs for the city. Right now, 1.6 million New Yorkers are food insecure, and the profit margins of a food business are razor thin at 1 to 2 cents of profit per dollar.
NY is in a pretty bad place, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the problems. From the outside looking in, it is a disaster, one to run away from, and many people did. Those who didn't and won't run, recognize the unique opportunity they have in front of them; fix the broken system to benefit the whole community. I wish them success in their endeavors, and I hope they prove nay-sayers wrong.
“The choices we will make about our food system over the next 10 years will be critical to building a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient New York City.”
The biggest challenges currently facing the city are food insecurity, racial inequity, economic insecurity, climate risk, and technological change. Below is a summary of the 5 goals as outlined by the plan to combat these challenges, followed by some strategies. Follow this link to read the full document : https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/foodpolicy/downloads/pdf/Food-Forward-NYC.pdf
Goal 1: All New Yorkers have multiple ways to access healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food.
Currently, food prices are higher than the national average, contributing to 1 in 5 new yorkers being food insecure. There are many avenues where residents can get their food; food pantries, soup kitchens, schools, grocery stores, farmers markets, street vendors, restaurants, etc. Only about ¼ of New Yorkers facing hardship use the emergency food system.
New York is diverse and so is it’s food. Accessing food looks different for each person, and the system needs to provide multiple ways to access healthy, cost effective, and culturally appropriate food. Strategies to reach this goal are as follows:
Launch a new food program to address food security issues exacerbated by the pandemic
Expand “get the good stuff”
Include whole families in summer food programs permanently
Pursue federal and state action to expand and improve snap and other food benefits
Make it possible to leverage health care coverage for medically tailored meals
Pursue federal and state change to expand the reach of produce prescription programs
Partner with health systems to increase access to healthy food
Enable food businesses to utilize more outdoor space
Evaluate options to limit exposure to unhealthy food and food marketing
Explore new ways to expand farmers markets and other programs that bring fresh fruits and vegetables to underserved communities
Transform the emergency food network
Support breastfeeding parents in hospitals, workplaces, and community settings
Pursue federal support for businesses and nonprofits that provide fresh fruits and vegetables in underserved communities
Study ways to improve access to cold storage in underserved communities
Improve cafeteria culture in public schools
Explore ways to increase the amount of freshly prepared meals in public schools
Explore new partnerships with schools around food access
Create a shared commercial kitchen for providers serving older new yorkers
Push for changes in state procurement law
Explore new ways to centralize and improve city food procurement
Study the viability of food hubs that expand public schools access to cold storage, processing space, and preparation capacity
Goal 2: New york City’s food economy drives economic opportunity and provides good jobs.
New York’s food system consists of tens of thousands of small businesses and the hundreds of thousands of workers that they employ. They operate on razor thin profit margins (approximately 1%), offer low wages, minimal job security and mobility. There are advantages to having a system of small and micro businesses, like the ability to meet diverse needs, but the disadvantages are lack of security. Strategies to reach this goal are as follows:
Enforce fair scheduling laws in fast food
Create financing and technical assistance plans to support worker-owned cooperatives
Push for state and federal changes that improve the condition of workers in the food industry
Support the workers who supply the city’s food programs
Explore ways to expand the city’s existing childcare programs to include night care for children of food service workers
Conduct a feasibility study on ensuring basic social safety net benefits
Push for a NYC small business recovery tax credit for small businesses including food businesses
Streamline regulations and enforcement processes related to food businesses
Support nycha food entrepreneurs
Advance initiatives that protect food businesses and consumer data
Push for expanded and new state and federal programs that support the needs of food businesses and cooperative efforts
Make it easier for vendors to participate in city procurement
Launch a food community hiring initiative
Support training for food technology careers
Support the creation and expansion of career pathways in the food sector
Create workforce development programs for school food workers
Goal 3: The supply chains that feed New York City are modern, efficient, and resilient.
New York City must strengthen their food infrastructure, food distribution, and farming. Food currently travels a long distance to the city, making it harder to understand vulnerabilities and for residents fully understand where the food comes from. The goal is to create “a more modern, efficient, and resilient food system” by moving more of the supply chain within New York City and the greater region. The plan is to invest in infrastructure, improving regional coordination and sourcing, and support increased urban farming. Strategies to reach this goal are as follows:
Continue to implement freightNYC
Continue to modernize hunts point
Strengthen the cities industrial business zones
Pursue development of critical food supply chain facilities
Support federal funding for infrastructure, support the development of borough and neighborhood based food hubs, starting with the central brooklyn food hub
Partner on a regional institutional food demand analysis
Increase the share of regional food the city purchases
Promote the creation of regional food aggregation centers
Advance educational and other partnerships between NYC institutions and regional farms
Remove barriers to urban farming
Explore new spaces for urban farming
Expand farms at nycha
Pilot innovations in urban farming technologies
Goal 4: New York City’s food is produced, distributed, and disposed of sustainably
Understanding that a sustainable food system is regenerative, rather than extractive in nature. Natural ecosystems and human cultures thrive, and residents can create meaningful connections with the ecosystems that keep them fed. New York seeks to integrate sustainability and animal welfare into their city programs by intervening at every stage of their foods life cycle, reducing in city air pollution, reducing unequal environmental impacts, and promoting community and business innovation around food sustainability. Strategies to reach this goal are as follows:
Include sustainability criteria in commercial waste zone contracts
Explore ways to integrate sustainability and animal welfare into city food procurement
Pursue federal dietary recommendations that consider environmental sustainability in the 2025-2030 guidelines for Americans.
Collect 90% of citywide organic waste by 2030
Explore ways to make cold storage locations more energy efficient
Plan for a cleaner, more efficient, and more resilient food transportation network
Partner with utilities to incentivize electrification and improve air quality
Advocate for the inclusion of local seafood and seaweed in the new york state grown & certified program, create national research informed standards for expiration dates on food products
Explore ways to reduce use of single-use items in food service
Pursue legislative action to reduce the impacts of packaging and single use items, bolster community owned waste management initiatives
Goal 5: Support the systems and knowledge to implement the 10-year food policy plan.
The goal is to expand knowledge of the food system, strengthen community engagement, and strengthen cross-sector coordination. New York's food system is made up of small parts that have complicated relationships with each other. Oftentimes, those who work in one part of the industry have no knowledge of how another part of the system works. Bringing people together in a way that there is increased understanding of each other's role and position, will help improve coordination.
“In order to implement the 10-year food policy plan, many stakeholders from different parts of the food system will need to work together in ways they have never done before. They will need opportunities to connect with and learn from one another. They will need to be able create and share new knowledge and data about the food system. And of course, they will need to have access to different pathways to make decisions about the food system.” Strategies to reach this goal are as follows:
Deepen the regional engagement through a NYC regional food working group
Partner with the non-government sector to maximize community participation in food policy decision making
Launch a public housing food leadership innovation lab
Explore the creation of a food justice fund
Improve and share the cities food procurement data
Conduct a regional food flow study and enhance stakeholder engagement for emergency management
Develop measures that capture multiple dimensions of food insecurity
Partner with the private and civic sectors on food education campaigns around sustainability and nutrition