CitizensNYC joins Goals House and Deloitte for Climate Week Panel

As global leaders convene in New York for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week, CitizensNYC continues to champion the role of neighborhood level action and community leadership in addressing major challenges.

On Monday, CitizensNYC’s VP of Programs José Dobles spoke on a panel hosted by Deloitte and Goals House on “Feeding the Future: A Sustainable Food Revolution.” Joined by leaders such as Kate MacKenzie, Executive Director of the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, and Sam Kass, Partner in Acre Venture Partners and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition under President Obama, José highlighted the impact made by our partners and provided a local community focus to conversations addressing systems change.

As José shared, “New Yorkers are lifting up food accessibility as a growing need in their neighborhoods, and they’re taking it upon themselves to turn an empty lot into gardens. We need to support these leaders and foster collaboration among them.” 

This year alone, CitizensNYC made 76 grants to initiatives that are addressing the climate crisis at the neighborhood level, and 33 grants to leaders tackling food insecurity and healthy living in their communities. 

From Hill Street Community Garden in Staten Island, where volunteers created a greenhouse and use it as a tool to engage and educate local residents on healthy living, to Garden Kitchen Lab in Brooklyn, where community members are utilizing innovative urban gardening to provide neighbors in need with nutritious food, we see what is possible when we recognize the expertise of community members and provide them the resources to do what they know is right.