UFCW Building Blocks Making Progress

Posted by Fern Gale Estrow, FSNYC Chair
On July 10, 2008 a very important gathering took place in New York City sponsored by the Grocery Workers UFCW Union Local 1500 that included hunger advocates, environmental groups, health organizations, labor unions, industry representatives, elected officials, city officials and community members and other affected groups. “The Building Blocks Project” Food Policy Conference was an event seeking to bring the NYC food policy landscape into focus and it was a great success. Issues including food security and access, food deserts and supermarket closures, living wage, local food systems, urban agriculture, industrial agriculture and public health were all addressed. The goal of the conference was to form an ongoing food policy working group to produce a broad set of food policy principles, and to consider a plan of action to implement them. Many FSNYC members were present, some presented, and many opportunities were identified for working together.

Moriah (Mo) Kinberg worked diligently over only a few months to bring together the many stakeholders in a landmark moment. Senator Liz Kruger shared her expertise on food security issues, Pat Purcell of the UFCW Local 1500 inspired all as he explained how the UFCW became involved in the current food crisis. The panelists highlighted sectors of the food system and included:

• Sean Sweeney, Director, Global Labor Institute
• Triada Stampas, Director of Government Relations & Public Education, Food Bank for New York City
• Sarita Daftary, Youth Program Coordinator and Project Director, East New York Farms!
• Roger Hayes, Program Director, Harlem District Public Health Office
• James Subudhi, Sustainability Coordinator, We Act for Environmental Justice,
• Dan Miner, Chair, Sierra Club NYC

Catering was done by Children's Aid Society, break-out group facilitation by Jobs with Justice, Nora Herting documented the conference graphically, and Hope Community did a photo documentary. Participants are listed here.

Reported outcomes of the conference reflected that most of the participating organizations felt that the UFCW Local 1500 policy principles (as discussed in our July newsletter) were in some way representative of their work. UFCW next steps for the policy principles will be to synthesize the feedback from the conference, add amendments to their existing principles, and create an online forum to continue this discussion. A few of the suggestion were to:

o Translate the principles into an action plan
o Build around a few principles and prioritize
o Add specific policies
o Create an online space for future input and dialog

One of the goals of the conference was to establish next steps as a group. Although we were not able to have a final next steps conversation as an entire group, each of the break-out groups identified some next steps. A few that were shared included:
• Develop methods for information sharing 
(e.g. the upcoming FSNYC Policy Blog)
• Coordination between existing coalitions and networks

• Create a food policy directory of organizations working in the NYC food system –If you would like to include your contact information, please email mkinberg@ufcw1500.org
• The principles should be only one of the working documents that go for group feedback to create a unified document

• Another meeting - networking follow up is needed to sustain engagement 

• Regular check-in to build movement as a whole


This is only a portion of the information gathered at the conference. UFCW has provided a compilation of the notes: Break-out Notes & Presentation Notes. In the next few weeks the UFCW Local 1500 will publish a full report on the conference that will be posted. They are in the process of launching their website to keep us all in contact on issues, news, legislation and actions of the diverse stakeholders, so stay tuned.
The Food Systems Network NYC extends a special thank-you for the outreach done by UFCW Local 1500 and their on-going work.

Download panelist Dan Miner, Sierra Club NYC’s essay on climate change and sustainable agriculture below.