First FSNYC Policy Committee Meeting

posted by Nadia Johnson, Just Food, and Mo Kinberg, UFCW Local 1500

A major NYC food policy opportunity is coming up! The Manhattan Borough President's (MBP) initiative—The Politics of Food Conference—will be held on Wednesday, November 19th from 8:30am-2pm at Columbia University's Lerner Hall. Maya Wiley, UN General Assembly President Father Miguel D'Escoto, and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg are among the featured speakers. One of the goals of the Conference is to produce short and long-term policy solutions for NYC in the following areas:

Food distribution; Finding healthy food (supermarkets, farmers markets, CSA's, in food deserts); Nutrition education; Urban farming; Healthy food for schools, hospitals, and other institutions; Fighting hunger; and the Urban food agenda: shaping city, state, and federal policy.

The MBP and conference steering committee, which several FSNYC members are a part of, will be following up on ways to implement these solutions.

To better meet this opportunity, FSNYC Policy Committee Co-Chair Thomas Forster and Network Members Mo Kinberg and Nadia Johnson are convening interested FSNYC members immediately following the November 11th Open Networking meeting for the first FSNYC Policy Committee meeting to share the various recommendations we're working on and indentify how we can best strategize for their inclusion as outcomes of the Conference. At this meeting we will not be developing a single policy position, but rather holding a discussion of positions related to the Conference agenda. If you are interested but unable to attend this Policy Committee meeting, please send your ideas/proposals to Mo (moriahkinberg@gmail.com) and Nadia (nadia@justfood.org), who will be compiling the information and sending to FSNYC members prior to the Nov 19th Conference. We hope you'll join us!

Nov. 11th 2pm, Cornell Cooperative Extension

16 E. 34th street 8th floor

2pm, following the FSNYC Open Networking Meeting

If you are unable to attend and are interested in learning more about the Policy Committee, please contact Committee Co-Chairs Thomas Forster, thomasforster2@gmail.com, or Nevin Cohen, cohenn@newschool.edu.