Building Food Justice in East New York

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Nutrition has been studied almost exclusively as a matter of individual choice, and control of nutrition-related heath problems has been considered a matter of health education, however it is incontrovertible that what people eat depends on what is available given our agricultural and food distribution systems, including pricing and advertising by retailers. The goal of this project is to address food justice in East New York (ENY). This initiative is based on a partnership between community members of ENY; a local health care provider, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center and an epidemiologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. It will characterize the extent of inequitable access to healthy food in ENY, introduce community driven solutions (a sustainable food co-op, health education/ screenings and a student internship program), and evaluate the process and outcomes associated with these interventions on residents and program participants. A series of undertakings are proposed that will address food justice in ENY by incorporating: a) interactions with the existing ENY Food Policy Council to develop a community advisory board and subcommittees, to actively guide the assessment, implementation, communication and evaluation of the project; b) a community assessment to measure the local food environment (food store/restaurant location, cost and quality of foods) and the attitudes, perceptions, knowledge and behaviors of ENY residents with regard to nutrition and health; c) modifications to the local food environment by: opening a food co-op in ENY, initiating nutrition/ cooking classes as well as a health screening services and training programs for students; d) policy makers to develop new policies towards food justice. The process involved in implementing these efforts will be evaluated by an external evaluator where results will be used to improve the implementation and finally, outcomes associated with these changes to the local food environment will be monitored. The study will be the first to evaluated community impact of a year round modification to a local food environment, at a neighborhood level, and will be the first to accomplish these goals as a community driven response to what local residents have identified as an environmental justice issue.