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Q&A
Updates and initiatives related to the Food Forward NYC plan
0:31:26
ยท
3 min
Council Member Brewer inquires about updates to the Food Forward NYC plan, given the current economic environment and rising food prices. Kate MacKenzie responds by outlining various initiatives and adjustments made in response to the plan and current challenges.
- The plan's five main goals remain unchanged, but strategies have been adapted to address current needs.
- New initiatives include improvements to the emergency food system, the 'Groceries to Go' program, and rethinking the FRESH program.
- Emphasis on supporting safety net programs like SNAP and universal school meals.
Gale A. Brewer
0:31:26
I wanna just ask about the food forward because that was a ten year policy plan published in 2021 as you said.
0:31:33
And, you know, the food prices were up then, but obviously much more now.
0:31:38
So I didn't know if your office has adjusted its approach to any of the contents of the plan considering our current environment.
0:31:45
And you did list some ways in which the city can address quality and rises in food prices, but is there something else that we should be doing in terms of publishing and updating the plan?
Kate MacKenzie
0:31:56
Thank you so much for that question.
0:31:59
So the five goals of the plan, the first one that we've spent a lot of time talking about here, which is ensuring access to affordable, culturally appropriate food, and the others are sort of ever clear.
0:32:12
Those are the those goals, I can't see any reason to change those, but the strategies and the rising the change in the context pushes us to do more and different things.
0:32:23
So clearly right after the pandemic, as you witnessed and experienced too, we needed to really shore up our emergency food system in a different way.
0:32:32
So things like looking at the allocations that we provide to our our food pantries and our soup kitchens, influencing the things like the racial inclusion and equity neighborhoods, giving extraordinary amount of choice for all of those food pantries to order what they want and the and need.
0:32:52
That was not the case before that.
0:32:54
So recognizing, I'll point out one from your district, Westside Campaign Against Hunger, who has a number of food sources.
0:33:02
They should be able to figure out what they need and order accordingly.
0:33:05
So some of those changes to long standing programs are things that we made in response to the plan.
0:33:11
Things like groceries to go, which was the ultimately from get food to a recovery food program to now ensuring that some of our neighbors who otherwise would not qualify for SNAP have benefit programs available to them.
0:33:27
That's something like we've done with groceries to go.
0:33:30
A significant amount of of work is going into really rethinking the fresh program.
0:33:36
I I took a note how you pointed out the connection between the larger size of stores and the quality.
0:33:43
There's often a relationship recognizing that with our real estate in this city, it's often hard to attract those types of businesses.
0:33:50
I'm personally interested in finding ways that are not just about retailers, but also things like we've seen in Boston and up in Utica, other forms of retailers that might be trying nonprofit models of grocery stores and things like that.
0:34:04
So those are the things that we're working with some some of our city agencies to expand on.
0:34:09
You know, again, I think really doubling down in these times more than ever, the support for our safety net programs of SNAP and even things like childcare.
0:34:18
And certainly, now that we have our universal school meals nearly made permanent, those ensure that our children are fed at least two meals a day without question.
0:34:30
So in addition to underscoring the safety net programs that we have shoring them up, we're also looking at the businesses and clearly the infrastructure that I've outlined.
Gale A. Brewer
0:34:38
Okay.