We discussed what this vision could look like for young people in our communities, neighborhoods, and schools. Next, we heard from Borough President Eric Adams about his efforts to improve nutrition across Brooklyn. We planned next steps by strategizing and prioritizing the policies, programming, and resources to make this vision a reality, as well as discussing inclusiveness and coalition building.

Our A is for Apple report, released in the summer of 2018 with accompanying New York City nutrition education program database, provided impetus for this work. The report revealed that 44% of New York City public schools lack external nutrition education programming and identified key opportunities to ensure all NYC students have access to great nutrition education: coordination, collaboration, and investment.

"I learned so much today I can't wait to let the families in my community know what is going on…” – La Tonya Assanah, Harlem Grown Greenhouse Manager and New York City public school parent

We already see programs across our city coordinating resources and efforts in the area of nutrition education. For example this past September, the Bubble Foundation merged with Edible Schoolyard NYC, moving their program into Edible Schoolyard NYC's existing operations. Both of these organizations provided nutrition education to underserved communities across NYC for over 8 years. The combined organization, under the Edible Schoolyard NYC name, will now be able to do so more efficiently and with broader reach.

Going forward, a subset of the Food-Ed Summit attendees have coalesced into a Food-Ed steering committee to continue to refine the policies, programming, and resources needed to ensure that all NYC school children have healthy, equitable, sustainable, and culturally responsive food access and education. To stay up to date, or to get involved, contact Claire Raffel, Deputy Director, at cu2155@tc.columbia.edu.