Brooklyn Food Coalition: Prospect Heights/Crown Heights Neighborhood Meeting

posted by brooklynfoodconference, on June 16, 2009

It’s an exciting time to be a Brooklyn resident interested in food issues. After the wildly successful Brooklyn Food Conference on May 2 in Park Slope (3,000+ attendees), the Brooklyn Food Coalition has launched its neighborhood meetings to advocate for a better food system.

Last night I was part of one of these meetings, representing Prospect Heights (my neighborhood) and Crown Heights, held at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (thanks to leaders of the BBG’s GreenBridge Program). Everyone in attendance—15 in total—shared a similar passion for food and hunger for change. Teachers, parents, community organizers, activists, and concerned citizens are ready to get involved, all from different perspectives, but with a shared goal—to improve the current food system.

After introductions and an overview by group coordinator, Erica Lonesome, the group targeted some key areas on which to focus:

• Access
• Affordability
• Land use
• School food
• Starting food coops

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Access and Affordability
There is an alarming scarcity of fresh produce in many neighborhoods in Brooklyn, including Crown Heights. While programs like community supported agriculture (CSA) are starting to sprout up in neighborhoods with little access to produce, there is still a noticeable lack of diversity (racial and socioeconomic) in the people taking advantage of these programs.

One way to promote awareness of CSAs while tackling the issue of affordability is to register more people for food stamps, through programs like Brooklyn Food Summer, through the Brooklyn Healthy Food Campaign. There are two benefits to utilizing food stamps: providing more people with access to healthful food, and supporting the local economy and local farms with federal dollars.

Some CSAs already operate on a sliding scale and some city green markets accept food stamps; however, there is still a need to promote their use and make them universally accepted.

A goal of the Prospect Heights/Crown Heights group is to ensure that their group reflects the same diversity that exists in their neighborhood. In order to establish a broader base of representatives, the group plans to reach out to various community groups and organizations.

Green My Bodega!
One of the group members is part of an initiative to encourage bodegas to provide local produce, Green My Bodega! Some of the goals of this initiative are to increase land/yard sharing, make locally grown produce more readily available to bodega customers, and build a new food production and distribution network. This much-needed service would both support a new economy of urban agriculture and provide people with access to healthful food.

Land Use
Vacant lots and unused spaces abound in Brooklyn. Once land use laws are determined, the group imagines taking advantage of this land for growing food through either yard sharing or starting new community gardens.

Most of us were surprised to hear from BFC blogger Paige Churchman that there are 56 community gardens between Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights. We often walk right past them, not even seeing them. There may be an opportunity for increasing visibility and promotion of these green spaces, either through Green Thumb or by individually approaching the gardens.

School Food
It’s no secret that the stuff that’s served in most school cafeterias in the city is a poor excuse for food.

Fortunately for the students in 20 schools throughout the city, including the Brooklyn Academy of Science and the Environment (BASE), this unsatisfactory situation is changing. Garden to Café, a pilot program to include local produce on the lunch menu of participating schools has recently launched.

A representative from Food & Water Watch was on hand to recruit volunteers for its School Milk Campaign, an effort to get recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) out of school milk. They are planning a meeting with Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY 11) in the near future.

The Prospect Heights/Crown Heights group plans to assess the state of public school food in their neighborhoods, such as P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights, to see how to improve the situation. The group also agreed that kids could be a part of these efforts.

Starting Food Coops
The Brooklyn Food Conference and Coalition was co-sponsored by the Park Slope Food Coop, a thriving center for food advocacy and action, and a model for newly formed coops. While these new coops—such as Greene Hill, Kalabash, and Grassroots—are growing, there is clearly interest for even more in neighborhoods like Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

Next Steps
The enthusiasm for change has spilled over from the Brooklyn Food Conference to the neighborhood meetings. I could definitely feel the buzz at the Prospect Heights/Crown Heights gathering.

Each neighborhood has distinct needs and, in order to meet them, will develop their own action plans. But while each group will be operating separately, it is in the works to hold general meetings where representatives from neighborhood groups share their efforts and best practices with the larger coalition.

As Ms. Lonesome, coordinator for the meeting said, “We are building a movement.”

Food is central to so many vital issues: labor rights, nutrition, the environment, hunger, national security, social justice. We can’t survive without food. We can’t thrive without a community that’s ready to change the food system. I’m proud to be part of this growing community.

—Liz Neves is a Sustainable Living Consultant and founder of Raganella.

Some Brooklyn Food Conference Speeches
Keynotes: Redmond | Patel | Prof. Louie | Lappé |
Food Sovereignty: D. Jackson | da Silva |
Food Rebellions: Patel | Steverson | Jean-Baptiste |
Young Farmers: Rooftop Farmers | Franklin | Fleming | Q&A |