REMARKS
Reimagining farm to school initiative and connecting urban agriculture partners
1:29:13
·
123 sec
Qiana Mickie explains how the reimagining farm to school initiative addresses the need for better connections between urban agriculture partners and supports food sovereignty in New York City.
- The initiative aims to connect siloed partners like community gardens and schools
- Emphasizes the importance of supporting various urban agriculture models and food sovereignty
- Highlights the need for New Yorkers of all scales and food security levels to be involved in urban agriculture efforts
- Explains how the Office of Urban Agriculture builds interagency connections and pathways for nonprofit partners, volunteers, and businesses to participate in the city's urban agriculture success
Qiana Mickie
1:29:13
I'd love to stay in touch and hear from your districts what you're seeing.
1:29:17
But your example is a great example and one of the impetus on why reimagining for the great example and one of the impetus on why reimagining farm to school was built in the way that it was.
1:29:25
Because like you said, oftentimes, there's siloed partners.
1:29:26
People we all eat.
1:29:28
We all and most and some of us need more security in our food or more access.
1:29:36
But beyond food security, we also need to support food sovereignty in New York City.
1:29:42
So when I say that, it's not just the access to food and culturally relevant food and local food or even donated food.
1:29:49
It's ensuring that we have different models that are working together and that the city is supporting that, not just from the top down, but from the bottom up.
1:29:59
And I think the Office of Urban Agriculture, given our, relationships and background with our Urban Ag partners, we kind of see these silos and, again, build initiatives that directly connect.
1:30:11
So, like, the reimagining farm to school, it was one of again, beyond what is we we have seen that there were partners, like, community gardens not connected to their school partners.
1:30:22
So we created that initiative to kind of help foster that relationship, not just in the sharing of education, but also and the sharing of food, but
Alex Paulenoff
1:30:29
also just the awareness that there are other practitioners doing work to support urban agriculture,
Qiana Mickie
1:30:32
food existing efforts around, food security, but we really feel like there's a continued need to build that intersection, but we need New Yorkers of all scale.
1:30:54
We need New Yorkers of all food security measures to feel like they can be a part of that work.
1:31:00
And so with us, we see that our initiatives are building that in that interagency connective tissue to inform our agency partners, but build better pathways for our nonprofit partners, our volunteers, and businesses to be able to be a part of the city's success.
