Abstract
In the last decade, New York City developed food policies designed to improve access to healthy food, reduce food insecurity, support community development, promote sustainable food systems, and improve conditions for food workers. Since 2012, the New York City Council has mandated the Mayor’s Office to prepare annual Food Metrics Reports to present data on selected food system indicators. This article uses these reports to assess how the metrics describe the city’s progress in implementing municipal food policies set in the last decade. Our analysis examines: (1) changes in the indicators that the city reports; (2) strengths and weaknesses of the Food Metrics Reports as a tool for monitoring policy enactment and impact; and (3) opportunities for improvements to the indicators and the development and implementation of future metrics. We found that the reports show improvements in 51% of the 37 indicators and sub-indicators, declines in 40% and no change or no assessment in the remaining indicators. While the food metrics process has provided valuable data on the implementation of selected city food policies, it has several limitations. By adding new indicators, tapping into additional data sources, and engaging additional constituencies in the process, New York City food metrics could play a more useful role in helping New York City to set goals and monitor progress towards the development of a more equitable, efficient, and sustainable municipal food system. The experience with food metrics in New York City suggests lessons for the use of food policy monitoring to improve food systems in other cities.
Highlights
In the last decade, New York City has instituted many new food policies and programs designed to improve access to healthy food, reduce food insecurity, support community and economic development, promote a more sustainable food system, and improve pay and conditions for food workers (Freudenberg, Cohen, Poppendieck, & Willingham, 2018; Willingham, Rafalow, Lindstrom, & Freudenberg, 2017)
We examined the city’s Food Metrics Reports between 2012 and 2017 to assess changes in five broad policy goals that we had identified in another comprehensive study of food policy in New York City (Freudenberg et al, 2018)
Our recommendations suggest a few ways in which the metrics process could be developed in the coming years to provide more useful evidence to guide food policy in New York City
Summary
New York City has instituted many new food policies and programs designed to improve access to healthy food, reduce food insecurity, support community and economic development, promote a more sustainable food system, and improve pay and conditions for food workers (Freudenberg, Cohen, Poppendieck, & Willingham, 2018; Willingham, Rafalow, Lindstrom, & Freudenberg, 2017). By using open access platforms such as New York City Open Data, the site that makes these data more widely available, an expanded food metrics initiative could assist public agencies, community leaders, advocates, and academics to participate more effectively and equitably in food policy governance. The Food Metrics Report already includes data from the Departments of Health, Education, and Environmental Protection, the Human Resources Administration, Small Business Services, Economic Development Corporation, and others By enlisting these agencies in defining and collecting data on other outcomes that contribute to better food systems, the Mayor’s Office of Food Policy could begin to monitor other outcomes that contribute to reductions in food insecurity and diet-related diseases. Engaging community residents and leaders in setting, collecting, and interpreting measures of inequality can increase their capacity to tackle the conditions that produce these disproportionate burdens
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