On August 1st, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson presented his plan to address food inequities in New York City, defined as unequal access to healthy food and socioeconomic, racial/ethnic and other disparities in the impact of the food system on well-being. The report outlines the food-related problems the city faces including high levels [...]
Amy Kwan is a Public Health Research Consultant and recent graduate of the Doctor of Public Health program at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. She is also an experienced staff person for several youth and community organizations and has participated in many participatory community health research studies. Amy’s doctoral dissertation [...]
Several organizations and coalitions, which include frontline direct-service emergency food providers; anti-poverty, senior advocacy, and immigrants’ rights groups; public health and academic institutions; and healthy food retail advocates, have together developed a New York City and State Healthy Food for All Budget Request Platform as a unified approach to advocate for New York City and [...]
In our February Newsletter, we wrote about a SNAP rule change proposed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The new rule would increase hunger and food insecurity by restricting the ability of states to waive the time limits for receipt of SNAP by able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDS). [Read earlier article here]. The [...]
Once again, the Trump administration has posted a proposed rule change that would increase hunger and food insecurity in the United States. And again, advocates are calling for individuals and organizations to post comments during the mandatory 60-day comment period that ends on April 2. The proposed rule would change the basis on which the [...]
On September 22, 2018 the Trump Administration proposed changes in the "public charge" rules that would expand the discretion of the Office of Homeland Security to deny applications for green cards or certain types of visas. This decision would be based on an immigrant’s age, family size, income, and assets, as well as based on [...]
In 2016, over 15.6 million U.S. households experienced food insecurity at some point, meaning at least one member of the household had limited access to adequate food due to lack of money or other resources. Access to adequate food may be conceptualized within five dimensions: availability (item variety), accessibility (e.g., hours of operation), accommodation (e.g., [...]
On Friday, October 20, 2017 The Fordham Urban Law Journal hosted its 2017 Cooper-Walsh Colloquium titled, “Taking A Bite Out of the Big Apple: A Conversation About Urban Food Policy” at the Fordham Law School Campus in Midtown Manhattan. The daylong event explored various topics related to issues of food access, food governance, food regulation [...]
In response to the rapidly changing political landscape and building on the success of the Healthy Food Access Portal, PolicyLink, Reinvestment Fund, and the Food Trust have introduced a new Healthy Food Access Policy Network. The Network will serve as a central space to engage advocates through monthly newsletters. Members can: learn about local, state, [...]
On September 30, 2016 the New York City Council Committee on Small Business and Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held an oversight hearing on Zoning and Incentives for Promoting Retail Diversity and Preserving Neighborhood Character. Nevin Cohen, Research Director at the Urban Food Policy Institute, prepared and delivered testimony focusing on the challenges and opportunities [...]
