On May 4th, CFF partnered with the New York State Health Foundation and Philanthropy New York to host a funder briefing titled, Towards a NYC COVID-19 Food Response in 2021.
The purpose of the call was to hear the past and future work of the NY Food 20/20 project. This research project is being conducted by three leading food policy research institutions in NYC: Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center; the Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education, and Policy; and the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute.
In 2020, the researchers partnered to monitor and assess New York City’s food system response to COVID-19, and collaborated to produce the first independent assessment of the effects of COVID-19 on our food system, an assessment of the many public and private responses, and a series of policy recommendations. In 2021, their agenda includes further research into the barriers to food insecurity on an individual, institutional, and systems level, and to use it to inform the development of new municipal models to monitor food insecurity and nutritional quality.
This research project also represents the first time that CFF served a coordinating role to bring different funders together and collectively fund one program. This coordination came as a result of weekly funder calls that CFF hosted early in the Covid-19 pandemic.
The speakers were:
- Bronwyn Starr, Senior Program Officer, New York State Health Foundation
- Nicholas Freudenberg and Craig Willingham, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute
- Pamela Koch and Jen Cadenhead, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy
- Charles Platkin and May May Lueng, Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center
The slides from the presentation are visible in the video below, but you can also download the presentation here to follow along. The research team also shared a handout that summarizes their recommendations from the first phase of the research and sets the agenda for 2021, as well as an op-ed they authored in September 2020 after the first report was published.
The following time markers can be used to jump around to different sections of the video:
- Start – Welcome and intro by Adam Liebowitz, CFF Director
- 4:35 – Bronwyn Starr discusses the role and interest of NYS Health Foundation
- 7:05 – NY Food 20/20 overview and initial findings
- 26:50 – Short Q&A
- 34:35 – 2021 research goals and agenda
- 59:50 – Q&A