News

At our December 14, 2021 Forum on Ending Hunger and Food Insecurity in New York City and the Nation: What Role for SNAP? Lessons from the Pandemic, 50 or so participants completed a poll ranking 10 measures to strengthen SNAP proposed by our panelists. Each proposal was rated from 1 (highest) to 3 (lowest) on importance for ending food insecurity and hunger in New York [...]

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, in New York and across the nation, college students were among the millions of Americans regularly facing food insecurity and hunger. The pandemic pushed many more, including students enrolled at City University of New York (CUNY) and State University of New York (SUNY), into food insecurity. It also highlighted the limits of prior approaches to ensuring food access and [...]

On November 19 the House of Representatives passed President Biden’s Build Back Better legislation.[1] Food advocates have widely praised the bill for several important child nutrition initiatives including: Expansion of the Community Eligibility Provision, which allows many more school districts to offer free meals to all students; $30 million to enable schools to invest in equipment to make healthier, scratch-cooked meals; $250 million for a [...]

VCN: Tell us a little about yourself. What is your favorite food and why? CY: My name is Christal, I’m a Junior at John Jay, and I’m the Food Justice Fellow at Swipe Out Hunger currently. I’m a big believer in growth and taking whatever’s thrown at me to create something positive. I just learned how to play Ode to Joy by Beethoven on the [...]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a voluntary salt (sodium chloride) reduction recommendation for commercially processed, prepared, and packaged food on October 13th, 2021 [1]. The guidance is intended to be voluntary and short-term (~2.5 years) in duration. The guidelines are important because most salt consumption comes from processed food and packaged food [7, 8]. Salt is added during food manufacturing as a [...]

My new publication, SNAP, Campus Food Insecurity, and the Politics of Deservingness, digs into the history of SNAP restrictions and the consequences of these policies for CUNY students today. SNAP student restrictions for full time college students were put in place in the early 1980’s. These rules bar full time college students from receiving SNAP unless they are working 20 hours a week or they [...]

The UIC School of Public Health is pleased to host Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health at City University of New York School of Public Health and Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. Dr. Freudenberg will be speaking about the effects of corporate practices on health (aka commercial determinants of health) as addressed in his recent book, At What [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to re-envision a food sector in New York City and beyond where workers all along the food chain have access to high-quality employment and are valued for their labor. The next New York City Mayor and City Council – and the new New York State Governor – have a chance to build back a better and more equitable [...]

Good morning, commissioners. My name is Nevin Cohen, and I am the Research Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute at CUNY’s Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. The Institute conducts community-based research and provides evidence and insights to support healthy and just urban food systems. A substantial area of our work is on policies and programs to increase food security and [...]