Thursday, December 3, 2015
Tisch, NY State Health Foundations Support Creating Oases in New York City’s ‘Food Deserts’
When Sade Bennett started working in April at a small farm on the grounds of a New York City Housing Authority complex in Brooklyn, she had a GED, a 5-year-old son, and a desire to better her health and her community.
She has learned how to grow produce, cook it in the healthiest manner, and along the way she obtained a certificate qualifying her to work in some sustainability-related jobs. She even surprised her family at Thanksgiving this year when she arrived with fresh vegetables. . .
The 1-acre plot where Ms. Bennett worked, known as the NYCHA farm at Red Hook, will serve as a prototype for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new Building Healthy Communities initiative. The multimillion-dollar public-private partnership aims to improve the health of New Yorkers in 12 communities that have limited access to healthy food and are sometimes referred to as food deserts. . .