Council on the Environment (d.b.a. GrowNYC)

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth is sponsoring low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2018, NYHealth awarded Council on the Environment a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthy communities.

Under this grant, two staff members attended the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group: It Takes A Region Conference. The conference is an annual convening that allows those working in sustainable agriculture to share best practices and build coalitions around advocacy. The convening’s recent prioritization of social and racial equity made this conference even more impactful. Conference sessions were aligned with the Council’s programming as it aims to expand its institutional capacity, from food safety guidelines to ordering mechanisms. Hearing from other food hub operators and building a network of practitioners contributed to the development of the Council’s programming.

View a complete list of conference participation grantees.