Fund for the City of New York

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that satisfies their dietary needs and food preferences.

The link between food and health is clear. Nutritious food can act as medicine, helping to prevent and manage disease. But too much food, too little food, food that is not nutritious, or food that is not culturally appropriate can have serious health consequences. NYHealth’s Healthy Food, Healthy Lives priority area works at the intersection of health and food to improve access to healthy and affordable foods, reduce food insecurity, and promote equity. To help leverage new and existing opportunities that promote promising policies and scale best practices, NYHealth issued a Request for Proposals (RFP), “Advancing Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives.” Through this RFP, NYHealth is supporting organizations across New York State working to improve food and nutrition quality; increase access to healthy and affordable food; and grow participation in food benefit and nutrition incentive programs. In 2021, NYHealth awarded the Fund for the City of New York, on behalf of Brooklyn Movement Center, a grant to participate in this initiative.

Under this grant, Brooklyn Movement Center will help support the opening of the Central Brooklyn Food Co-op (CBFC), a Black-led retail grocery store offering healthy, affordable food for residents in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights neighborhoods. Currently, for every 1 grocery store in these neighborhoods, there are 57 bodegas and corner stores that sell very little fresh food. CBFC will expand community outreach efforts to increase co-op membership, which will help lower operational costs and sustain a permanent retail location. CBFC will create a member engagement manual and host a variety of trainings. Programming within the store and public events in the community will promote food equity and racial justice. CBFC will also work to stock its store with local, low-cost food that supports Black-owned farms and businesses in Brooklyn.

See a full list of grantees participating in this initiative.