The Mayors Fund To Advance New York City

Date of Award

12.21.2015

Program

New York City Regional, Food Assistance

Amount

$1,712,500

Term of Grant

66 months

Project Title

Implementing Emergency Food Improvements and Advancing Strategic Food Policy Priorities in NYC

Project Description

The requested funds will support two related work streams. 1. The first work stream will help the New York City Emergency Food Assistance Collaborative (the Collaborative) to implement its three-year initiative to improve access to emergency food assistance for the city’s residents, particularly those in the least-well-served neighborhoods. In particular, this work stream will begin implementation of a recently agreed-upon Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) to improve the presence, efficiency, and reach of individual food providers in priority neighborhoods, improve data about the emergency food assistance system to enable more efficient delivery of food and services, pilot an application to improve client service, and continue to foster increased collaboration among relevant stakeholders. 2. The second work stream will help the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy identify the outcomes, policies, activities, and partnerships with which it can achieve the greatest impact in the next three years. Over the last 18 months, that office has created alignment among key partners and City agencies regarding a systems approach to improving the food system. Based on extensive consultation with experts it has identified three long-term priorities as essential preconditions for such an improved system. These priorities are: 1) public and nonprofit institutional food service is nutritious and high quality; 2) neighborhood retail and restaurant food is healthy, high-quality, and affordable; and 3) the food supply infrastructure supports these goals. While these priorities are included in the City’s OneNYC plan, the plan is not specific about what must be achieved, creating a need to increase the clarity of program and policy strategy, and metrics of success.