New Report Gives Next Mayor Plans to End Hunger

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger has a plan for the next mayor. 

 

They've devised a new report they're calling Food Secure NYC 2018. It aims to provide the next mayor with tools to dramatically decrease hunger and improve nutrition for all New Yorkers. 

 

Joel Berg is the executive director of the coalition. He says the Food Secure NYC 2018 report is necessary because there are still 1.4 million New Yorkers who don't know where their next meal will come from.  

 

"We are calling on the next mayor to have a comprehensive food-jobs initiative that really promotes not only growing food and selling food, but processing food," Berg says. 

 

Among the initiatives is a plan to locally produce the free meals city schools provide to low-income students. Those meals are currently out- sourced. And, Berg says local production would have ripple effects throughout the city's economy.  

 

"Not only will that increase jobs, not only will that boost the economy, not only will that help reduce hunger, but will also aid the environment because we'll have to spend less on transportation costs," he says.

 

Another initiative asks the city to create affordable so-called "food and nutrition zones" in every neighborhood. And another would create a public/private food policy council coordinated by a strengthened, fully-staffed City Office of Food, Hunger, and Nutrition Policy. 

 

The coalition wants the plan up and running by 2018, the end of the next mayor's first term.