Fresh Fruits and Vegetables For All - The New York Community Trust

March 15, 2018 | By The New York Community Trust

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables For All

FARM TO TABLE: A rendering of the food distribution and processing center that will open in 2019. Courtesy of GrowNYC

Although farmers’ markets seem to sprout everywhere, most small upstate growers have no way to sell fresh produce directly to City residents in need of healthy food.

Giant wholesalers control the bulk of the food supply. In 2012 and 2013, The Trust invested in GrowNYC to develop plans for a wholesale market in the South Bronx, and in Natural Resources Defense Council to build support for the project. Both groups convinced City and State officials to fund a regional market in Hunts Point.

The hub will feature a 75,000-square-foot wholesale warehouse while creating 80 jobs in the Bronx and supporting 120 upstate farmers.

Construction starts this year, and it’s expected to open in early 2019.

FREE LUNCHES: Grants to Community Food Advocates helped win free school lunches for all New York public school children in 2017.
RESCUED FOOD: From 2002 to 2016, The Trust funded City Harvest’s rescue and delivery of 5,360,000 pounds of healthy food to hungry neighbors in need. This year, the Trust will fund the delivery of a million more pounds of food.
PUBLIC HOUSING GOES GREEN: We helped Green City Force train 96 AmeriCorps members to build and maintain 5 farms on City public housing land while learning practical skills such landscape design and solar panel installation.

WASTE NOT: City Harvest collects excess food from restaurants, bakeries, and markets and delivers it to soup kitchens, food pantries, and other programs across the five boroughs. Here, a volunteer gives out sweet potatoes at a mobile market supported by The Trust.