City Speaker Launches Attack On Food Inequity In Cypress Hills

CYPRESS HILLS, BROOKLYN — City Council Speaker Corey Johnson gets really excited about lettuce, especially in schools like Cypress Hill’s P.S. 89, where students grow vegetables in their own greenhouse.

“We need a bigger round of applause for eating more lettuce,” said Johnson at the food equity press conference the school hosted Thursday morning. "I love the idea of kids eating freshly cooked meals in school."

Johnson came to the Cypress Hill school to announce the launch of City Council's plan to attack food inequity in New York City in the upcoming year and outlined several new policies he hopes will create neighborhood-specific food policy that both fights hunger and honors local culture.

Several new policy changes would be funneled through the Office of Food Policy, which city council hopes to expand with better funding and more resources. The new agency would amp up the Health Bucks program, which provides fruit and vegetable coupons to low-income New Yorkers, as well as oversee school nutrition programing.

The new agenda, called "Growing Food Equity In New York City," also addresses college hunger through the proposed Access to Healthy Food and Nutritional Education initiative.

Johnson said he hopes to launch a new program to help hungry CUNY students, half of whom faced food insecurity last month, because of one student who told him she sometimes cut classes to find emergency food pantries.

"That stress and trauma ultimately affected her GPA," said Johnson. "That's not what we want for any of our students."

City council will also consider bringing making more neighborhoods eligible for the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) zoning bonus, which offers tax incentives to open grocery stores in underserved areas, and creating an Office of Urban Agriculture to expand community gardening and empower gardeners.

Johnson told the crowd of elected officials and reporters that the food agenda was inspired in part by President Donald Trump administration policies, including proposed funding cuts to programs that help feed millions and the "fear mongering" Johnson said makes undocumented New Yorkers afraid to access city programs meant to provide them with sustenance.

"Shame on the federal government for using hunger as a weapon," Johnson said. “Access to adequate, nutritious food is a human right.”