Communities for Healthy Food Bed-Stuy means real jobs in the business of food, it means options for buying good food on our ‘hood budgets, it means we gather to build community spaces to produce, cook, share, and eat food. It means that we grow stronger together as we reclaim our right to great tasting, high quality, and sustainable food.
Our work falls into five program areas:
Good Food Jobs: Food industry jobs training, and workshops and entrepreneurial support for cooperative food businesses.
Culinary & Nutrition Knowledge Sharing: Programs that support community members to learn and teach culinary skills and nutrition basics. Our Just Food Community Chef training program began in July 2014. After training, our chefs lead cooking demonstrations and culinary classes throughout the neighborhood and across our programs. Adult and Family cooking courses led by NEBHDCo Community Chefs began in Fall 2014.
Urban Farming & Gardening: Three gardens/urban farms growing food for the pantry, a fourth food garden at our senior residence building, and one aquaponics facility in planning stages. One urban farm includes a paid youth internship and training program.
Retail Work: Working with existing retail, such as bodegas and supermarkets, to increase healthy food options. New food retail options: with Harvest Home, in July 2014, opened a new Farmers’ Market for low-income people; developing a new Central Brooklyn Food Co-op, with local partners and residents.
Advocacy & Community Building: Food Empowerment Education and Sustainability Team (FEEST) brings together youth to prepare and share great healthy food and engage in social issues that affect their lives; community events such as film screenings, book signings and cooking events gather community, to identify leaders for future organizing and encourage healthy eating.
The Communities for Healthy Food Initiative was started by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation/New York City office, with seed funding from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund and is housed in four different Community Development Corporations throughout NYC: New Settlement Apartments in the Bronx, West Harlem Group Assistance in Manhattan, Cypress Hills LDC in Brooklyn, and NEBHDCo in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Join our email list to be the first to learn about the latest news, events, program applications, and more! To contact us, email: Anise Hines, Food Access Outreach Coordinator, at outreachinfo@nebhdco.org or call us at 718-453-9490.
