The “NY Food 2025: Policy Recommendations for a Stronger, Healthier, More Just, and Sustainable Food System in NYC” was recently released by the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center, The Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy and the CUNY Urban Food Policy. According to a recent report from the NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, an estimated 1.4 million NYC residents – making up 12.9% of the city’s population – are food insecure.
The NY Food 2025 series includes 28 recommendations centered around:
- reducing food insecurity;
- improving access to healthy food for all residents;
- reducing the promotion of unhealthy foods;
- implementing a sustainable and equitable food infrastructure;
- protecting and empowering food workers;
- improving the coordination and monitoring of food policy; and
- increasing the community stake in and control over the city’s food system.
Various recommendations are offered to the City Council and the mayor, beginning with: expanding the budget for the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; providing more assistance to support healthy food initiatives at the community level; expanding affordable food programs; and improving the nutritional quality of food assistance programs. The report highly recommends that these actions be completed by the end of this year.
Going forward, the researchers would like to see the following actions implemented between 2022 and 2025:
- drafting preparedness plans for future large-scale states of emergency;
- ensuring a universal definition of healthful food for agencies and emergency food programs;
- expanding nutrition incentive programs for providers as well as customers;
- strengthening regional food systems;
- supporting urban agriculture; and,
- creating processes in which New Yorkers most affected by the food system can influence laws and policies affecting their well-being.