Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy has announced the city’s first-ever 10-year food plan – Food Forward NYC – which seeks to address food insecurity from many different directions. Research has shown that currently 1.6 million New York City residents are food insecure – they do not have stable access to quality, nutritious food.
The policy has five core goals aimed at tackling hunger, food waste, malnutrition-related ailments, and food industry instability:
- all New Yorkers will have multiple ways to access healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food;
- New York City’s food economy will drive economic opportunity and provides good jobs;
- the supply chains that feed New York City will be modern, efficient, and resilient;
- New York City’s food will be produced, distributed, and disposed of sustainably; and,
- we will support the systems and knowledge needed to implement the 10-year food policy plan.
Food Forward NYC emphasizes the importance of choice – where everyone should be able to access the food they want wherever they may want it. To enable this choice, it recognizes the need to support both food workers and food businesses.
“It should go without saying that in a truly great city, no one should ever go hungry,” writes Mayor Bill de Blasio, in part, in an opening letter of the Food Forward report. “But beyond tackling hunger, we are also committed to ensuring that all New Yorkers have the information, tools, and access to eat healthy food and learn about nutrition; to lift up food workers and reduce food waste; and to back local businesses and urban farming, among a host of other responsibilities.”