Food is a Human Right

Food has the power to connect us to the cultures of our past and present, to our neighbors, our communities, and our earth.

In New York City, one of the richest cities in the world, everyone should have equitable access to healthy food, every community should have greater control over their food options, every person should have enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, and every neighborhood should have food businesses that reflect that community’s cultures and diversity.

Food is also a fundamental human right, protected under international human rights and humanitarian law.

As with other fundamental rights, the primary responsibility for ensuring the right to food lies with government.

All low-income people, regardless of race, experience food insecurity.

In New York City, structural inequities have contributed to neighborhoods that are predominantly low-income communities of color having less access to healthy food and experiencing greater food insecurity and food-related illnesses

These communities have long been on the front lines combatting an unjust food system that harms the environment, negatively affects human health, and contributes to economic inequality.

The New York City Council has crafted a policy agenda to advance food equity and advance every New Yorker’s right to healthy food.

The food and agriculture work being done across many different City agencies continues without a unified, comprehensive food plan with a formal community engagement strategy, or consistent and meaningful tools for measuring the impact of City agencies’ efforts to address food issues.

Hunger has no place in a just, healthy society. No person in New York City should go hungry; yet NYC faces a “meal gap”—the number of missing meals that result from insufficient household resources to purchase food—of nearly 208 million meals.

An estimated 1.09 million New Yorkers are “food insecure,” meaning that they had difficulty at some time during the year accessing enough food due to a lack of resources. New York City’s food insecurity rate is 12% higher than the national rate, and 21% higher than New York State.

While New York City’s current rate of food insecurity is declining, it is still higher than prior to the 2008 recession.

From 2015-2017, 18% of all children, almost 9% of working adults, and almost 11% of seniors experienced food insecurity.

SNAP provides recipients with monthly electronic benefits that can be used to purchase food at authorized retailers.

As of May 2019, approximately 1.54 million New Yorkers – almost 20% of New York City’s population – relied on SNAP.

Saving just one-third of food from becoming waste would feed the 41 million Americans who face hunger.

In total, Americans throw away more than 400 pounds of food per person each year, which equates to over $218 billion per year and approximately 53 million tons of food.

While over-production of certain foods is a structural problem in our food system that leads to food waste and is challenging for local intervention, there are things that states and municipalities can do to curb the waste we create.

Healthy food is vitally important to ensure student success in school.

However, according to Feeding America, over 335,000 of all children across the five boroughs (just over 18%), are food insecure.

Studies have shown that adequate access to nutritious food can directly affect the mental, social, and behavioral development of school-aged children.

In the past several years, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has made significant progress towards ensuring that all children have access to nutritious food during the school day.

Paired with nutrition education, access to healthy food during the school day can change eating behaviors in a way that decreases childhood obesity.

Everyone should have access to fresh, healthy food, which can come from many sources such as supermarkets, small grocers, non-profit stores, bodegas, restaurants, green carts, farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, fresh food boxes, and community gardens.

Unfortunately, there is inequitable access to fresh and healthy food options in many neighborhoods throughout the city, particularly in low-income communities of color.

The City, food businesses, and community members alike have attempted to combat this inequity through the development and funding of programs and incentives, several of which can be strengthened and expanded.

Farm-to-City Food Map

In February 2019, New York City Council Speaker and then-Acting Public Advocate Corey Johnson created an interactive Farm-To-City Food map of the five boroughs, highlighting the importance of access to fresh and healthy food for all New Yorkers.

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Source: DOHMH Community Health Survey, 2017

It includes a rich history of community gardens, and newer food production and greening models, such as green roofs, and rooftop and vertical farms.

Urban agriculture can include aquaculture, horticulture, agroforestry, beekeeping, and animal husbandry.

With the environmental, health, educational, and green jobs benefits that urban agriculture brings to the city, we must work to ensure that urban agriculture spaces are preserved and can thrive, all New Yorkers have access to urban agriculture education, and that urban agriculture is a key component of City climate and resiliency plans.

These gardens improve our urban environment, bringing community-led green spaces, improved air quality, increased opportunities to grow fruits, vegetables, flowers and herbs, and hands-on food education to neighborhood children, adults, and seniors.

A study also found that community gardens increased nearby property values, with the positive real estate impact increasing over time.

Community gardens can provide economic empowerment for gardeners that provide fresh-farmed produce or education services for their neighborhoods, ensure all New Yorkers have access to urban agriculture education, and help the City’s efforts to combat climate change and build resiliency.

The New York City Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) was founded in 1996 to promote the preservation, creation, and empowerment of community gardens through education, advocacy, and grassroots organizing.

This came at a time when Mayor Rudy Giuliani was selling off community garden lots for private development.

In 1998, Mayor Giuliani placed all 700+ community gardens up for disposition to private interests, and in May 1999, 114 were selected to be auctioned off to developers.

On the eve of a scheduled auction, the Trust for Public Land (TLP) and New York Restoration Project (NYRP) negotiated purchase of the 114 community gardens from demolition, transferring them from publicly to privately-owned entities.

Since then, TLP has enabled these gardeners to own and control their garden plots by organizing and training leadership for three land trusts in Manhattan, Brooklyn-Queens, and the Bronx.

Land trusts are often non-profit organizations that acquire land or conservation easements to ensure land is used for greening and conservation purposes.

In 2002 and with intervention from State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the City and community garden advocates reached an agreement for the preservation of 500 community gardens, while the other gardens were converted to affordable housing developments.

Every person regardless of their income, race, gender, education, age, birthplace, or neighborhood should have equitable access to healthy food.

This report, Growing Food Equity in New York City, is the City Council’s agenda to help reach that vision.

Together, we can work with shared purpose and commitment to implement these strategies towards building a more just food system.