Food Systems Network NYC is a membership based organization designed to foster communication and cultivate community amongst various stake holders and professionals working across the food system. Members gather monthly for Open Networking meetings to encourage collaboration; share information; discuss public policy; and promote opportunities for individuals to partner on specific projects. We are pleased to launch our website to better fulfill our mission and to provide tools for our members to share resources and grow stronger. Please enjoy looking through what our site has to offer, and if you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to get in touch!

Change of Location!!!!

Tuesday, January 13th
12-2pm
West Side Campaign Against Hunger
Church of St Paul & St Andrew
Basement Level
263 W 86th Street
NY NY 10024

Food Systems Network NYC members have been hard at work participating in strategic planning faciliated by Alison Cohen  this past season. Beginning with an energetic Community Visioning Session in August and continuing with break out groups and teams, members and FSNYC leadership have been dreaming big and thinking concretely about the potential for FSNYC moving forward.

As a part of this process, we're pleased to present FSNYC's revised mission statement and set of core values.

These statements represent a significant accomplishment for all of us, and provide inspiration to transform our visions into solid and accomplishable goals for the future.

Posted by FSNYC Policy Committee

From school food to the soda tax to outcomes from the politics of food conference, 2009 will be a year for food systems change. Join the Food Systems Network Policy Committee meeting to share your expertise on NYC policy initiatives, learn from other members and help develop a cohesive food policy for NYC.   At the second policy committee meeting following the Jan. 13th Food Systems Networking meeting, we will:

Posted by Mark Foggin

Foggin: When I was asked to visit the West Side Campaign Against Hunger’s emergency food program at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Certainly not aisles of stocked shelves nor  checkout counters.  I didn’t expect to see people with shopping carts picking their way past one another in the aisles.  But that’s exactly what I found.  It felt like a small supermarket.  And the people in it seemed just like shoppers I might find in my local grocery store.  There wasn’t much around that screamed out “food pantry.”  And that’s just the way Doreen Wohl likes it.  Doreen Wohl arrived at West Side 16 years ago.  And while the program was well intentioned, she saw a lot of things that struck her as not quite right about West Side’s approach to emergency food.

Welcome to FSNYC's first monthly video selection! Each month, this space will
feature a new local food system video submitted by FSNYC members and
friends to be shared and enjoyed as an educational resource and
inspiration for our collective work within our NYC region.  Some of the
best stories of local food and farm efforts are difficult to convey
using words alone. With the plethora of video currently being produced
about food, we became excited to provide a video showcase for some of
the amazing behind the scenes work within our region. This monthly
feature will present innovative programs, producers (like this month's
on Dancing Ewe Farm), school and community gardens, other urban farming

Welcome to FSNYC's first monthly video feature!

WATCH IT:  Our First Submission: DANCING EWE FARM AND RICOTTA BEIGNETS from TheDairyShow.com

Learn More...

Posted by Ed Yowell, Slow Food NYC

Zaid Kurdieh, and his wife Haifa, started farming on a half acre just about ten years ago. “I guess it was more like gardening.” Zaid admits, but producing food suited them. By 2000, they moved to a larger scale when they assumed cultivation of Norwich Meadow Farms in Norwich, N.Y.   Since then, Zaid and Haifa have steadily increased acreage under cultivation and erected high tunnels to expand the growing season.

Increased production has enabled them to deliver their produce to more Greenmarkets, an expanding number of Norwich and New York City CSAs, and one steady restaurant customer, Jimmy’s No.43 on East 7th Street in Manhattan, that sources vegetables almost exclusively from Norwich Meadows Farm. Other restaurants sourcing regularly at the Union Square Norwich Meadows farm stand include Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Café.