Mayor moves for better food at city agencies

Mayor Adams signed off on two executive orders Thursday aimed at improving the quality of food offered by city agencies and the city’s messaging around healthy eating.

The orders, which Hizzoner signed at an emergency food pantry in the South Bronx, task the city Health Department and the newly-created Mayor’s Office of Food Policy with revisiting the food standards of city agencies and mandate that all promotional materials on food put out by the city feature healthy selections like fresh fruit and vegetables.

Some of the agencies impacted include the Department of Social Services, which helps oversee the distribution of food to the city’s needy, the Education Department, which provides school lunches, and the Correction Department, which is responsible for feeding the city’s jail population.

“We were focused on caloric consumption and not nutritional consumption,” Adams said, who stood beside crates filled with fresh fruits and veggies. “So if we have to pay a little more to make sure that these perishable items are available, that’s a better investment. We have been paying less on the front end and paying more on the back end.”

Adams — who years ago began losing his vision due to diabetes, but turned his health around after changing his diet — was referring to the health care costs associated with treating people with that ailment and other maladies like heart disease and obesity.

Kate MacKenzie, who heads his food policy efforts, noted that the new executive order geared toward the city’s Good Food Purchasing Program will also place an emphasis on supplying city agencies with locally grown fruit, vegetables and grain to distribute to New Yorkers in need and public school kids. But she also noted that city agencies would continue to distribute canned fruits and veggies, as well as grains and beans.

“We’re not taking anything away. We’re adding incredible amounts of quality and variety to the emergency food system,” she said.