On Saturday, January 29, 2011, I, and a group of other teens attended the NYC Food and Fitness Partnership’s film screening of What’s On Your Plate? at the Horticultural Society of New York. In partnership with different organization, they wanted to engage teens in the discussion of food and fitness in our neighborhoods.  As a result, the NYC Food and Fitness Partnership created a youth planning committee, who met on various occasion and actively planned the day. These youths came from different organizations such as The Bronx District Public Health Office Youth Advisory Board, Brotherhood/Sister Sol and Family Cook Productions, The Brooklyn Rescue Mission, El Puente and Coro New York Leadership Center. Kenny and I represented the Bx. DPHO YAB at these meetings. Despite the bad weather, a reasonable amount of young people and adults came to the event.

At the beginning of the event, there were three work stations led by Family Cook Productions, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, and the Bronx District Public Health Office Youth Advisory Board (Bx. DPHO YAB) which showcased part of the work that we all do: cooking, physical fitness, gardening and nutrition.  All the topics presented were related to healthy eating habits and being fit. We, the Bx. DPHO YAB, educated participants how to understand the nutritional content and count the calories in their favorite Sugar Sweetened Beverage (SSB) the largest single driver of the obesity epidemic affecting NYC residents today. According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Americans are consuming 200-300 more calories per day than 30 years ago, with the largest single increase due to SSB. As members of the YAB, Kenny and I, carry out an activity were participants learned ‘How Much Sugar’ their favorite SSB has.

Following the tabling session we watched a movie called ‘What’s On Your Plate?’ about two girls who lived in New York City and made a movie about connecting the food on their plates to where the food comes is grown. The movie was very interesting and raised many issues about food and health: the role farmers markets splay connecting their produce to the food in our plates; the relationship of diabetes and obesity; and the power we have to make changes. After the movie there was an open discussion about what we, the teens, can do as the young voices in our community to promote healthy food.  We also talked about things which affect food in our communities.

Overall the event was a great way to get different ideas from teen leaders in diverse communities around New York City. I believe this youth event was a stepping stone for many great things yet to come.  If the voices of future leaders in our country continue to be involved, a powerful change will happen and the obesity epidemic affecting teens will end.

Date: Tuesday, February 8 at 1pm
Location: 250 Broadway, 14th Floor Hearing Room. You will need a photo ID to get into the building.

What you can do:
Come add your voice to the discussion! Anyone can participate in a public hearing and it’s an easy process. Members of the public who would like to testify are generally allowed three minutes to speak, are asked to sign-up at the beginning and to submit hard copies of their testimony.

On January 20, 2011, the New York Academy of Medicine will give you the chance to offer your solution for stopping the epidemic of obesity in New York’s City low-income neighborhoods and communities of color to local area policymakers. The call for submissions is now open for 1) oral presentations and 2) posters that addresses one of the following four areas: neighborhoods, places for children to learn and play, food systems, and workplaces. Please see the Call for Submissions for more information.

Seed Grant funds have supported the creation or enhancement of services in community organizations.  This funding has enabled organizations provide innovative and self-sustaining ways of confronting community needs, helping individuals to decrease their reliance on emergency food and increase promotion of nutrition and physical activity among various age groups.

Application guidelines and application are available. In addition, United Way has compiled a Resource Guide with a list of partner organizations/urban farming consultants with expertise in growing food and related programming, along with other informational resources and FAQs will assist applicants in developing their project proposal.

We also want parents to share success stories on how they have changed school food for the better in their schools.  To RSVP, please call or email Audrey Castillo at 646-253-5709 or acastill@health.nyc.gov with the date and location of the training that you want to attend and the number of spots you want to reserve. We will be serving dinner, providing childcare for children over 3 years old, and offering homework help!

We are in a unique moment in time with unprecedented support for changing school food environments. A new report from the Hunter College Healthy Public Policies Projects and City Harvest shows readers how to join the school food reform movement to change the New York City school food system and improve the diets, health and well-being of New York City schoolchildren. The Recipes for Health report shakes out a number of the strengths and weaknesses with the current system, outlines when and where red tape often crops up, and most importantly, suggests 10 steps the city can take to improve school food programs and the health of New York City children. It also offers suggested actions that parents, teachers and students can take right away to improve school food. Download the report here.

What you can do now:

1. Communicate with your Representatives in Congress about the value of the Child Nutrition Bill. This is important especially as we move towards mid-term elections and attention will be turned elsewhere. You can find contact information for your Representatives here.
2. Attend a parent engagement training in late October/early November in Bedford Stuyvesant, Bushwick, Brownsville or East New York. These trainings are being coordinated by the NYC Food & Fitness Partnership, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, City Harvest, Brooklyn Food Coalition, and Food Bank for NYC. The purpose of these trainings is to help parents articulate their desired changes within the school food environment and gain the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the system and advocate for change. If you would like to receive more information about the trainings, please email Christine Yu at cyu@nycfoodandfitness.org.
3. Attend the What’s Next for School Food? Forum hosted by City Harvest and CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College in early November to discuss next steps in school food advocacy and how the new federal reauthorization of child nutrition programs will support opportunities for change. For more information about this event, please email recipesforhealth2010@gmail.com.

In your school:

1. Ask the school’s parent coordinator for the SchoolFood Manager’s contact information and when they will be in your school, as well as the schedule of SchoolFood Partnership meetings.
2. Attend your SchoolFood Partnership meeting or invite your SchoolFood manager to a PTA meeting, parent-teacher night, or other school staff gathering and ask them questions about school food.
3. Encourage more children to eat school lunch so that your school can get more kitchen staff, which makes it easier to prepare tasty meals from scratch.
4. Let teachers know about Breakfast in the Classroom and ask them to urge the principal to accept the program and/or expand it to more classroom.
5. If your school has a salad bar, volunteer to staff it once a month.

For more ideas, read the report and get involved!

Community gardens are currently a hot issue in New York not only because gardening season is upon us, but also because a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that has governed community gardens in New York for the last 8 years is set to expire in September 2010. On July 8, 2010, NYC Departments of Parks and Recreation and Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) both issued new proposed rules for community gardens that would take effect once the agreement expires.

While the City has stated that it is committed to replacing the 2002 Agreement with meaningful protection for gardens, many garden advocates believe that the proposed rules do not offer meaningful protection for gardens and continue to treat gardens as temporary spaces.

Background
Over the past three decades, community gardens in New York City have both flourished and been the target of economic development efforts. In the late 1990s, then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani placed all community gardens, over 700 of them, up for sale to private interests. After a period of activism, protest and legal challenges, then Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg reached an agreement in 2002 to preserve approximately 500 of the city’s gardens. This Agreement governs community gardens in the city on Parks Department and HPD land and expires in September 2010. Advocates fear that without an appropriate replacement agreement or legislation, community gardens will not be protected and may be developed, particularly if future mayoral administrations are not as friendly to gardeners as the current one.

Read more about the contested history of community gardens in the city, information about current rules and policies that are under consideration and how you can get involved, and a brief discussion of additional policy avenues for supporting community gardens in New York.
Full Policy Brief
Summary Brief

What you can do now!
1. Attend the public hearing on the proposed rules on August 10, 2010 at Chelsea Recreation Center at 430 West 25th Street in Manhattan at 11:00 a.m., and speak in favor of protection for community gardens. If you would like to testify, please notify Associate Counsel, Ms. Laura LaVelle via telephone at 212-360-1335 or email by August 9.

2. Spread the word! Call 10 fellow gardeners or friends and urge them to attend the public hearing. The whole community should be out to support community gardens – teachers, youth, farmers market managers/sellers/buyers, businesses, residents, etc. Gardens are a vital community resource whose benefits extend beyond just the gardeners themselves.

3. Submit written comments on the proposed rules if you cannot attend the public hearing in person. Written comments must be submitted on or before August 10, 2010.

● Online at www.nyc.gov/nycrules

● Written comments on the HPD rules should be sent to Mary-Lynne Rifenburgh, 100 Gold Street, Room 5Q-2, New York, NY 10038.

● Written comments on the Parks Department rules should be sent to the General Counsel, Mr. Alessandro G. Olivieri, Department of Parks and Recreation, The Arsenal, Central Park, 830 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10065.

4. Ask the Mayor to use his executive power to dedicate city land for permanent use as gardens. You can email the Mayor here or call 311.

5. Attend the New York City Community Garden Coalition’s information meetings about the proposed rules! Sign up for their email list and find out about their meetings on their website.

More information on the 2002 Agreement and the new proposed rules.