Category Archives: News and Events

Healthy Food Financing Initiative Projects RFP

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services (OCS) will award up to $9.5 million in Community Economic Development (CED) discretionary grant funds to Community Development Corporations (CDCs) for community-based efforts to improve the economic and physical health of people in areas designated as food deserts. Additionally or as an alternative, applicants can point to indicators of need, such as poor access to a healthy food retail outlet, a high percentage of low-income residents, incidence of diet-related health conditions, or high concentrations of persons eligible for food assistance programs. Through the CED program and within the framework of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (CED-HFFI), OCS seeks to fund projects that implement strategies to increase healthy food access, foster self-sufficiency for low-income families, and create sustained employment opportunities in low-income communities. To do this, the CED-HFFI program will provide technical and financial assistance for healthy food ventures designed to: (1) improve access to, and purchase and consumption of healthy, affordable foods; and (2) address the economic needs of low-income individuals and families through the creation of employment and business opportunities in low-income communities. CED-HFFI grants will be made as part of a broader strategy to address objectives such as decreasing dependency on Federal programs, chronic unemployment, and community deterioration in urban and rural areas. CED projects are expected to actively recruit low-income individuals to fill the positions created by CED-funded development activities, and to assist those individuals to successfully hold those jobs and ensure that the businesses and jobs created remain viable for at least one year after the end of the grant period. CED-funded projects can be non-construction or construction projects. The grant period for non-construction projects is 3 years; for construction projects, the grant period is 5 years. The CED program permits facility construction as needed to support business creation, business expansion, and/or job creation. However, it is important to note that short-term construction jobs associated with preparing for business startup or expansion are not counted when determining the number of jobs created under the CED program as they are designed to be temporary in nature.

Bonus points will be awarded for proposed healthy food projects that involve collaboration with other Federal HFFI Programs and Certain Additional Federal Programs that Address Healthy Food Access, target rural communities and that will be located in one of the following states or Trust Territories that do not have an active CED-HFFI project: Alaska, American Samoa, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Island of Guam, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Northern Mariana Islands, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Deadline: 7/21/2014

http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=255897

 

May 27, 2014

Food Lab Graduate Students Receive Department Awards

The School of Architecture and Planning recently celebrated the academic achievements of students. During the Awards Celebration, three members of the Food Lab were recognized for their work.

Maryam Khojasteh, MUP, and Sarah Sangiovanni, MUP, both received the Chair’s Award for Academic Promise in recognition of their potential for the pursuit of advanced learning beyond the Master’s degree and for future contributions to planning scholarship.

Jennifer Whittaker received the Academic Excellence Award in recognition of achieving the highest overall GPA in the MUP program as a returning student.

Three of the Food Lab members are also graduating this year.  Travis Norton received his Masters in Urban and Regional Planning in December and is now serving as a Project Coordinator in the Food Lab.  Maryam Khojasteh will also receive her Masters in Urban Planning in May, 2014 and is continuing her research on immigrant and ethnic entrepreneurs and their role in strengthening local food systems.  Sarah Sangiovanni also received her MUP in December and is currently assisting with the Growing Food Connections Project. 

CDC’s Newly Released Health Equity Guide Features Buffalo, NY

A Practitioner’s Guide for Advancing Health Equity: Community Strategies to Preventing Chronic Disease (the Health Equity Guide formerly known as the Health Equity Playbook) was released in December. The Health Equity Guide, developed by Prevention Institute in partnership with the CDC, provides tips and concrete strategies to ensure that initiatives achieve good health for all. It also includes dozens of case studies that showcase the great work being done by local health departments and coalitions—including work in Buffalo, NY. Dr. Samina Raja’s work with the Massachusetts Avenue Project is highlighted in a piece titled Using Planning and Zoning to Create Access to Healthy and Affordable Food.

Click here to learn more about the publication and download the full guide. We hope you will share it with your colleagues, networks and partners and that it will spur further discussion and action to advance health equity.

Student Agricultural and Food Systems Innovation Prize Launched – Help Innovate Agriculture!

Posted by Tawny Mata, Senior Advisor, Office of the Chief Scientist, on February 4, 2014 at 4:30 PM

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Food ties all of humanity together, and making sure there is enough to go around while conserving our natural resources is critical to USDA’s mission. Our researchers think about how to sustainably produce greater quantities of safe and nutritious food every single day. Our in-house science agency, the Agricultural Research Service, has labs across the country that work on just those problems, while our National Institute of Food and Agriculture seeks out the most promising ideas from our university partners and awards the funding needed to get started.

Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to make a big jump in progress.

That’s why USDA is in cooperation with Agricultural Innovation Prize: Powered by 40 Chances to find the best new ideas for addressing the challenges in agriculture and food systems. This competition, coordinated by the University of Wisconsin at Madison with support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, will award $215,000 in prizes to students with the most promising innovations in agriculture. The grand prize winner gets $100,000!

USDA is reaching out to its university partners to pass the word along to potential contestants and to its own agency scientists to serve as mentors to help teams take their idea to the next level.

If this challenge sounds fun and important, and you’re ready to sign up as a contestant, go to http://agprize.com for more information about the scope, prizes, and timeline for the competition. You must submit your idea by February 28th, 2014, so get brainstorming! We, here at the USDA, can’t wait to see what you can do.

And if you want to be a judge or a mentor to student teams, head over to http://agprize.com/information-for-the-public/judges to get involved.

– See more at: http://blogs.usda.gov/2014/02/04/student-agricultural-and-food-systems-innovation-prize-launched-help-innovate-agriculture/

Posted 2/12/14

Growing Food Connections Launches Website to Train Communities across the U.S. in Food Systems Planning

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Growing Food Connections, a research, planning and outreach initiative to strengthen community food systems across the United States, has launched www.GrowingFoodConnections.org as a resource repository for communities looking to broaden access to healthy food and sustain their local farms and food producers through public policy.

Led by the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab at the University at Buffalo in partnership with Cultivating Healthy Places, Ohio State University and American Farmland Trust, Growing Food Connections (GFC) will target 10 “Communities of Opportunity” – communities poised to tackle their food access challenges and agricultural viability – with an intensive program of education, training, technical assistance and extension activities.

The five-year, $3.96 million initiative is funded by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. American Planning Association is a key project partner along with a National Advisory Committee of esteemed leaders in agriculture, food systems and public health.

“Communities increasingly are looking for ways to connect their populations – particularly the under-served – with healthy, affordable and culturally acceptable food while fostering a viable agricultural sector,” said Samina Raja, PhD, UB associate professor of urban and regional planning, director of the Food Lab and a principal investigator for Growing Food Connections.

The new website, along with GFC’s direct extension activities in these communities, led by the American Farmland Trust, will ensure planning officials have the tools they need to develop, implement and maintain policy solutions to sustain agriculture and strengthen their food systems.

“This effort is unique,” suggests Julia Freedgood, Assistant Vice President of Programs at American Farmland Trust, “because it builds capacity of local governments to support family farmers and ranchers as a path toward community food security.”

Kimberley Hodgson, planner and principal of Cultivating Healthy Places notes that “the website will provide local government officials with a range of tools to assist them in developing their own food system plans and policies.” A social networking forum and webinars will support information sharing and peer-to-peer dialogue across participating communities. Forthcoming is a comprehensive database of local and regional public policies, from food production ordinances to food system plans and local procurement policies, to facilitate policy change.

With information on continuing education, doctoral programs in food systems planning and policy at Ohio State University and University at Buffalo and student internship opportunities, the website also supports GFC’s goal to develop an educational framework for the next generation of food systems planners.

For more information, visit: www.GrowingFoodConnections.org.

Posted on 2/12/14

UB Students Study Food Environment in Jamestown, NY

A group of graduate students from the Masters of Urban Planning (MUP) program presented a plan to promote healthy food retail in Jamestown, New York. Students prepared the plan on behalf of the Chautauqua County Health Network’s Creating Healthy Places initiative which aims to make Jamestown, NY a healthier place to live, work, and play.

The project was funded by the New York State Department of Health. A recent news article about students’ presentation is available here.

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Posted 12.17.2013

New Food Policy Council Will Help Tackle Problems Affecting Local Food System

A celebration to mark the launch of the new Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County was held at the Public Forum and Info Fair held at the Burchfield Penney Arts Center, on Wednesday, October 23, 2013.

The Food Policy Council (FPC) of Buffalo and Erie County is a subcommittee of the Eric County Board of Health, and was created by law in May 2013. This is the first FPC recognized by law in New York State.

The council, which comprises of 17 voting members, will offer guidance to local policy makers on ways to improve the local food system for the region’s farmers, consumers, and other stakeholders.

A link to a Buffalo News article describing the launch of the FPC can be found here:  http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/communities/new-food-policy-council-takes-on-problems-in-local-food-system-20131023 or here (pdf).

Posted 10.27.2013

Announcing the 2nd Buffalo Food Policy Summit

The Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities – Buffalo Partnership, University at Buffalo, Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., and SUNY Buffalo State College will be coming together with various local community organizations and public agencies to host the Buffalo Food Policy Summit.

The 2nd Buffalo Food Policy Summit will take place on October 23-24, 2013 and will feature 6 events over the two days.  The goals of this unique Summit is to introduce the Food Policy Council of Buffalo and Erie County (FPC) to policymakers and residents, and illustrate how they can participate in the new Council to create a more sustainable food system.

The Buffalo Food Policy Summit gives the community and sponsors a platform to voice their opinions, spread their ideas, and address various food issues that are prominent in the Buffalo community. The Summit comes at an important time as it can inform multiple local policy efforts currently underway. Current policy efforts that can strengthen the city’s food system include the Buffalo Green Code process, which is intended to overhaul Buffalo’s land use plan and 60-year-old zoning ordinance; the work of the Western New York Regional Economic Development Council , which recognizes agriculture and food systems as key economic development priorities; and the One Region Forward Regional initiative to develop a bi-county regional sustainability plan.

For the event schedule, you can visit the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities website located here. Events at the Summit are free and open to the public.

Posted 10.10.2013.

Food Lab Participates in 5th Annual Tour de Farms Ride

Members of the lab participated in Tour De Farms, an annual fundraiser for the Massachusetts Avenue Project and GOBike Buffalo.  Our 21-member team, the Beehive, rode 35 miles from West Side Buffalo to Oles Farm in Alden, NY on Saturday, September 14.

Tour de Farms raises awareness about the city and region’s food system. Riders visit community gardens and urban and rural farms along the route.  At the end of the route, everyone shares a meal at Oles Farm, a local sustainable farm in Alden, NY. The event celebrates sustainable transportation and the local food system.

The team, which comprised of members of the UB Food Lab, representatives of Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo, as well as family and friends, received an award for the largest participating team. The team raised awareness about bee Colony Collapse Disorder in Western New York. For more information you can check Cornell Cooperative Extension’s research on Colony Collapse Disorder.

Tour de Farms was sponsored by Independent Health, The Buffalo News, U-Haul and the University at Buffalo.

Posted 09.18.2013