On February 9th, Equity Advocates co-hosted the Mayoral Food Forum 2021: Town Hall on the Future of Food in New York City. Candidates in attendance were Eric Adams; Shaun Donovan; Kathryn Garcia; Ray McGuire; Dianne Morales; Scott Stringer; Loree Sutton; Joycelyn Taylor; and Maya Wiley. Andrew Yang was expected, but unable to attend after testing positive for the coronavirus.
The Forum was co-hosted by Equity Advocates, in collaboration with Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and NY COVID-19 Food Coalition members, including City Harvest, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, Food Bank for New York City, Hunger Free America, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy at Columbia University, LiveOn NY, United Way of New York City, UJA-Federation of NY, and West Side Campaign Against Hunger.
As NY1 political anchor Errol Louis, moderator of the Forum, said, “This is an urgent time to be talking about these issues. Up to 2 million New York City residents are struggling against hunger and food insecurity. Malnutrition is at least partly to blame for the higher infection and death rates from COVID-19 in low income neighborhoods and communities of color around the city. We’ve been dealing with this now for almost a year. It has been a challenge all along the way. Both to deal with the immediate emergency and the longer term institutional changes that are needed to get us out of this crisis and make sure we are ready for the next one.”
Over 2,500 attendees listened to topics ranging from how the candidates would address hunger and food insecurity, the quality of school food, competitive wages in food systems jobs, investing in urban agriculture, deeper food governance, strategies for investing in community food sovereignty as well as the city's response to COVID-19. We are proud that Equity Advocates led the effort to include community voice in the forum by collecting questions from the public for the event and that several members of our NY COVID-19 Food Coalition had the opportunity to ask direct questions to the mayoral candidates questions about their food policy priorities and plans. Following the event, candidates were asked to answer a series of questions developed by event hosts on their plans to address food insecurity, sustainability, and workers’ rights.
To watch a full recording of the Mayoral Forum on the Future of Food, click here.