IN THIS ISSUE: Featured Interviews & Articles: The Campaign Against CUNY’s Pouring Rights Contract with PepsiCo: An Interview with Eman Faris; The National Movement to End Pouring Rights Contract: Interview with Catherine Cochran and Daphne Crother; Lessons from the NYC DOHMH’s Fight Against Big Soda: Interview with Thomas Merrill; Envisioning a Sustainable CUNY Food System: Interview with Nicholas Freudenberg; Student Perspective: The Impact of Values-Based Procurement on Campus Food Environments / Call to Action / Suggested Readings & Resources / Previous Video Recording / In the News / Upcoming Events / Survey / Opportunities

EDITORIAL

Greetings CUNY Urban Food Policy Monitor readers and members of our food policy learning community!

What responsibility do colleges and universities have to provide their students, faculty, and staff with a healthy campus food and beverage environment? To what extent, if any, should corporations be allowed to shape and dictate the food and beverage options available on our campuses? 

In this month’s newsletter, we dive in to explore the answers to these questions. We had a conversation with Eman Faris, Director of Advocacy at CUFPI, who has been supporting students to lead the CUNY Campaign for Healthy Food (CHeF) against CUNY’s pouring rights contract with PepsiCo. This campaign is part of a growing effort to end pouring rights contracts at several university campuses across the country. We interviewed our partners at the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a student organizer from UC Davis to learn more about these national efforts. We also had a chance to speak with Professor Thomas Merrill, Esq. who served as general counsel at the NYC DOHMH from 2006-2020 and contributed his knowledge and expertise as a lawyer to the Sugar Sweetened Beverage (SSB) tax proposed by the Bloomberg Administration in 2012. We explore the potential impact of Executive Order 8 (2022) on reducing the climate impact of our food system and the benefits of adopting values-based procurement across city agencies. Lastly, in our interview with Nick Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, Founding Director and Senior Faculty Fellow at the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, and Faculty Director of Healthy CUNY, he shares his opinions and recommendations for how the university could enhance its food system to make healthy food and beverages more available, accessible, and affordable for the entire CUNY community.  

Guest Editor of this Issue: Eman Faris, Director of Food Advocacy, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute

Production Coordinator: Rositsa T. Ilieva, Director of Policy, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute

Digital Content Specialist: Liv Collins, Communications Assistant, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute