09/28/2023
Fall 2023
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Our latest newsletter features stories about New York’s historically underserved communities and our efforts to help them build their own self-sustaining food models to bring fresh, locally-grown produce to our city’s diverse neighborhoods. Just Food, together with our network of community leaders, is focused on helping growers, professionally-trained chefs, and eaters pave the way to a new, more equitable, and climate-friendly food system. We hope to shed light on our community members, many of whom have been heavily impacted by the pandemic, and the work they do to advocate for food sovereignty on the ground, in the polls, and in our kitchens. Whether you’re involved with a CSA, a farm, or a farmer’s market, or you just care about healthy nutritious food and food justice, we’d love to hear what you think! Drop us a line at advisory@justfood.org.
Email Us: jf@justfood.org
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This is a regular column of news and tips from the world of New York City CSAs. As our CSA members enjoy late summer and fall produce, we’re already looking forward to welcoming new and returning members to another summer of fresh weekly and biweekly produce grown by our network of local farmers.
Many CSAs have members who return year after year. But weβre always ready to bring newcomers into our communities. Here are some of the ways we find new members in our neighborhoods.
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Encourage your members to spread the word about CSA! Maybe they went on vacation and donated their share to a friendβask them if the friend wants to sign up.
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Make sure your listing on our Value Chain Map is up to date!
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Ask your host group to publicize the CSA to its members. If youβre in a school, ask to speak at a PTA meeting. If a religious group or nonprofit, make sure they let their constituents know and post on their social media pages.
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Neighborhood Facebook, Instagram, and special interest discussion groups are always interested in publicizing local events and opportunities. Ask your core and current members to post in groups they belong to. Dog owners? Parenting? Community garden lovers? Next Door? Block associations? CSA is all about communityβadd your voice!
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Neighborhood associations and community boards sometimes send out newsletters. Give them a sentence or two about the CSA, including a link to your website or social media and your deadline for sign-up.
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City council representatives maintain extensive email lists and are always looking for neighborhood events for their newsletters. Be sure to include information about sliding scale or SNAP/EBT payment if your CSA does this. Every city council representative maintains a neighborhood office and is happy to hear from their constituents (thatβs you!).
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Patch.com is one site, but many neighborhoods have blogs or online news sites. Our Brooklyn CSAs have welcomed many new members from round-up articles in local newspapers whose content remains online for years.
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Every neighborhood is a patchwork of different cultures and constituencies. Think about your current membership. Who are you not reaching? Is your CSA affordable to all? Make sure youβre reaching out to groups that havenβt typically been part of your CSA in the past!
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Just Food is excited to announce a new partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to build a community-run chef training program for its New York New Roots Program. The Cultivate NYC project will address food insecurity and economic inequity in the Bronx and Queens’ diverse BIPOC and immigrant communities through creating an educational and training opportunity for neighbors to launch and sustain local food hubs and to gain access to NYCβs ever growing food justice and agriculture networks. With the Cultivate NYC project, Just Food and IRC in NY propose to build out food hubs in two communities that face food insecurity caused by lack of access to affordable nutritious food and high unemployment, and continue to support the development of local leadership and capacity for long-term nutritional security and economic opportunities.
The Cultivate NYC initiative aims to credentialize and enhance the skills of chefs by providing chef training to community members as well as further promote food justice and health and wellness through local food production and farmers market management. These trainings will not only allow neighborhoods to improve nutritional security through healthy food access, but also provide income-generating opportunities and build community investment in food systems and sustainable management infrastructure. Our focus will be on giving our neighbors the tools to prepare nutritious meals that incorporate products from the site market or CSA, and will be centered on healthy dietary practices, native and local agricultural products, and community support.
Just Food, in collaboration with the IRC, will also identify local farmers and producers for New Roots Community Farm market vending and help build community-led markets, CSAs, and food box programs based in the IRCβs Bronx and Queens New Roots Community Gardens, in addition to the community chef trainings we will facilitate throughout the year.
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2023 PEOPLE’S GARDEN INITIATIVE
Just Food and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will be rolling out the People’s Garden Initiative this fall. The project will award micro-grants to eligible new or existing urban gardens in New York City. Keep an eye out for inbox and social media updates – more information on this project will be announced soon!
