Report – Jobs For A Healthier Diet And A Strong Economy

Cover of the report Jobs for a Healthier Diet and a Stronger Economy

A Report by the NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College and the City University of New York School of Public Health released in August 2013, Jobs For A Healthier Diet And A Strong Economy: Opportunities For Creating New Good Food Jobs In New York City, examines current efforts to create new food jobs in New York and explores opportunities for creating additional jobs that provide a living wage and contribute to making healthy food more available and affordable.  The report also examines the role CUNY can play in creating a good food workforce for New York City.

Across the city, state and nation, our food system is coming under new scrutiny for its impact on our health, economy and the environment. At the same time, our local and national economies face unacceptably high rates of persistent unemployment. Can developing new approaches to creating entry-level food jobs that promote health and economic development help to solve these problems? Can the food sector become a setting for innovative intersectoral solutions to several of New York City’s most serious problems including high unemployment rates, rising rates of diet-related diseases, enduring inequalities in health and high levels of food insecurity among the poor?

In this report, the New York City Food Policy Center at Hunter College explores the potential for creating “Good Food Jobs” –jobs that pay a living wage, offer safe working conditions, promote sustainable economic development, and make healthier food more accessible to all New Yorkers. The report investigates potential synergies between the need for more good food and more good jobs. It seeks to provide elected officials, city agencies, food businesses and employers, health professionals and workforce development programs with the evidence they need to forge effective policies and programs that will create new Good Food Jobs.

Download the full report, the executive summary, or the report without executive summary.

Filed under: Literature, ResourcesTagged with: ,