On March 18, 2020 Community Food Funders organized a quick-response video meeting so that members could listen to nonprofits and local government officials about how the current crisis is affecting food distribution and access in NYC.
In August 2019, New York City announced plans to adopt the Good Food Purchasing Program, a procurement model that gives public institutions the tools and support to implement better food-purchasing policies. Through this program, public school systems, city governments, and other large institutions are transforming the way they purchase food and helping create a more transparent and equitable food system. GFPP is currently being implemented in 15 cities and jurisdictions nationwide. On January 27, 2020, NYSHealth hosted a discussion with national and local leaders in the Good Food Purchasing Program
On June 12th, over 50 CFF members gathered at Project Farmhouse for the 7th CFF Annual Gathering. Local food and drink was supplied by Community Chef Kitchen, a new catering company cooperatively owned by women of color from Brooklyn. The evening featured a presentation by Groundswell Center, our 2019 CFF Champions Award recipient; an update on the Seeding Power Fellowship and introduction of our 12 inaugural fellows; and a keynote presentation by Dr. Monica White, author of the new book Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement.
Join us for an afternoon site visit that will engage your brain, body, and spirit. Designed to provide an experiential “dip” (as opposed to “deep dive”) into the transformative work that takes place at Hattie Carthan Community Food Projects to promote growth at the individual, community, and ecological systems levels, the three hour visit will include: grounding in basic principles of food justice and equity; a guided tour of the sites; an opportunity to engage in dialogue about the process of systems change; experience of some of the healing modalities employed in collaboration with Mother Nature; and shared labor to benefit the farm, garden, or market.
On June 7th, over 50 CFF members gathered at Project Farmhouse for the 6th CFF Annual Gathering. Delicious Puerto Rican food was supplied by Liberation Cuisine, with drinks sponsored by Port Morris Distillery and Bronx Beer Hall. The evening featured a presentation by East New York Farms, our 2018 CFF Champions Award recipient, and a keynote panel on food system issues in Puerto Rico with frontline activists from the island.
On July 12th, CFF hosted an event called Pesticides in Paradise: How Hawaiian Communities Took on the Chemical Industry and Won. Food justice advocate and funder Anna Lappé opened with an overview of how she learned about this story and why she was drawn to get involved, and then Dr. Virginia Rauh presented her research on the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos and its public health impacts, including related chemical exposure from indoor spraying here in New York City. From there we heard from community activist Malia Chun about her community’s personal history with the pesticide industry, and how that narrative fits in to the larger history of Hawaii post-contact with Western colonialists. Anna Frederick, Executive Director of Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action (HAPA), then detailed the community organizing and statewide campaign that resulted in the country’s first ban on chlorpyrifos. Malia closed by discussing new nonprofits, especially on the most impacted island of Kaua’i, that have emerged as a result of this fight.