Field & Fork Network Inc.

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 Field & Fork Network a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to build healthy communities.

Under this grant, Field & Fork Network staff attended the Northeast Agricultural Working Group’s 25th Annual It Takes a Region Conference. The conference fostered a unique environment that allows all attendees to participate in the dialogue of each workshop. It is one of a few conferences that converges agricultural challenges with food access and food justice challenges. The conference was an enormous development opportunity for Field & Fork Network’s key areas of interest: food policy and youth development. Attending the conference allowed Field & Fork to network with other organizations in the field and bring back best practices to its work in Western New York.

View a complete list of conference participation grantees.