MAYOR ADAMS TAKES EXECUTIVE ACTION TO PROMOTE HEALTHY FOOD IN NEW YORK CITY
Mayor Signs Two Executive Orders to Formalize City’s Commitment to Good Food Purchasing and Promote Healthy Food Advertising on City Property
New York City Mayor Eric Adams today signed two executive orders signaling his administration’s commitment to procuring, preparing, and serving healthy and nutritious food citywide. The orders — signed at the Mercy Center Bronx, an emergency food pantry — further underscore Mayor Adams’ commitment to food justice and to reducing diet-related health inequities and disease outcomes.
“If we want to encourage New Yorkers to be healthier, the city must set the tone,” said Mayor Adams. “The executive orders we are signing today build on the progress we have made to better align our policies with our public health priorities, and show that New York City continues to lead the nation on food policy that centers equity and justice.”
Executive Order 8, Commitment to Health and Nutrition: Food Standards and Good Food Purchasing repeals Executive Order 122 of 2008, which set forth standards for meals served by city agencies. It will task the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy with revising the City Agency Food Standards, which will be circulated to agency heads on April 1, 2022, and every three years after that.
The order also formalizes the city’s commitment to the Good Food Purchasing principles through transparency about how mayoral agencies’ procurements impact core values relating to local economies, environmental sustainability, valued workforce, animal welfare, and nutrition affecting the health of all New Yorkers.
Executive Order 9, Promotion of Healthy Foods in City Publications and Advertising on City Property requires that all promotional materials put out by agencies and advertisements on city property regarding food — to the extent practicable — feature healthy food.
Both orders build on the mayor’s bold food policy agenda, including the recent introduction of vegan options in all public schools and six new plant-based lifestyle medicine clinics in NYC Health + Hospital throughout the city.
Also announced at the event was the publication of the Department of Social Services’ (DSS) new Food Distribution Program procurement, which will include fresh fruits and vegetables for the first time in the 30-year history of the program. Established in 1983, Emergency Food Assistance Program purchases and distributes food items to more than 600 food pantries and soup kitchens across the five boroughs. As a part of the city’s response to the COVID-19 emergency, DSS also began to distribute fresh fruits and vegetables through a parallel program, known as Pandemic Food Reserve Emergency Distribution. This procurement will streamline these efforts to ensure the safe, consistent, and reliable supply of nutritious, healthy, and culturally appropriate food to emergency food providers across the city, and direct public dollars to vendors that reflect the administration’s values of equity, public health, and minimizing environmental impact.
Mercy Center Bronx
377 East 145th Street
Bronx NY 10454
February 10. 2022
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