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["Michael Burns" <michael AT fingerlakespermaculture.org>]

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, SPEAKER QUINN AND DEPUTY MAYOR GIBBS ANNOUNCE LOCAL FOOD
PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES

New York City is One of First Major Cities with Specific Local Food 
Initiatives

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Deputy
Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs today announced a set of
guidelines encouraging City agencies to procure more food products grown,
produced or harvested in New York State and to work with vendors to track
current purchasing of NYS food where information available. New York City is
one of the first major cities to develop a specific initiative on local food
procurement.

“The City’s purchasing of New York food is good for our local economy and our
health, as well as having the potential to be less expensive for the City and
its taxpayers,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “Providing agencies with more tools to
foster the purchasing of food grown, produced, harvested, or processed in New
York State will enable more New Yorkers to enjoy fresher, more seasonal food.”

“These guidelines were born out of FoodWorks, a comprehensive food policy
blueprint to meet the needs of our growing population and achieve a healthier,
more sustainable food system,” said Council Speaker Quinn. “As part of this
plan, the Council passed legislation requiring the City to develop new
procurement guidelines, encouraging purchasing from regional farmers and other
food producers by City agencies, leveraging our economic influence as a major
food buyer. New York City is second only to the United States military in
institutional food purchasing. That’s an enormous power in the marketplace.
And, if we consciously drive more of our purchasing locally, we’re going to
see a significant impact in the local economy.”

“As one of the first major cities with specific policies around local food
procurement, New York City is again leading the way when it come to healthy
initiatives,” said Deputy Mayor Gibbs. “Seasonal, fresher produce is just one
of the benefits of locally purchased food and we have the additional benefit
of knowing we’re contributing to the local economy.”

“I, along with the Council, and with much credit to Speaker Quinn, have become
a strong advocate for local agriculture which led me to introduce the
legislation that became the guidelines released today,” said Councilmember
Gale A. Brewer, Chair of the Governmental Operations Committee. “We can
provide locally grown food to city agencies as well as the kitchens of New
Yorkers. Since my July 7, 2011 New York State Farm and Infrastructure tour in
Orange and Ulster Counties, it's clear to me that we have the production and
processing capacity to partner with our farmers, get healthier, teach our kids
to eat right, grow the economy, and save money. I encourage City agencies to
embrace these guidelines by purchasing more locally grown and regionally
processed foods in our agencies and even our schools, and I applaud the
Administration for creating group purchasing partnerships to help non-profits
buy more locally as well.”

“Strengthening urban-rural linkages is critical to creating a healthy food
system and preserving our food shed,” said Food Policy Coordinator Kim
Kessler. “By giving City agencies the ability to make more local purchases, we
can provide more opportunities to local farmers, while increasing access to
fresh, seasonal foods in our City agencies.”

As part of FoodWorks, a comprehensive plan that sets a bold vision for a more
sustainable food system, the City Council passed legislation requiring the
City to develop new food procurement guidelines to encourage agencies to
purchase from regional providers, harnessing the potential to be a powerful
and major food purchaser.

Under the new guidelines, agencies are encouraged to review their current
“menu” to identify areas where a currently procured product might be replaced
with an alternative product available from New York State, such as changing
oranges to apples.

Additionally, city agencies may grant a “price preference” for New York State
food, e.g., agencies may determine that it is appropriate to award a
particular contract to a bidder offering New York State food products whose
price falls within 10% of the lowest responsive, responsible bidder’s price,
where that low bidder does not offer New York State food products.

A goal of the initiative is to help other city agencies to build on successes
of the Department of Educations’s SchoolFood, which currently buys an
estimated $25 million worth of regional products with most of it coming from
New York State, equaling at least 14 percent of the City’s total food budget;
the new guidelines encourage other City agencies to follow suit. (In FY 11,
DOE spent $142.3 million on food purchases and of that amount 18% was spent on
locally produced food. FY 12 from July to December, DOE spent $64.4 million on
food purchases and of that amount 18.4% was spent on locally produced food.)

To help its nonprofit human service partners leverage their purchasing power
and reduce administrative costs, the City has established a group purchasing
partnership with Essensa, and worked to ensure the availability of New York
State food products.

Along with the Group Purchasing partnership, the City also outlines other
methods of local food purchasing such as through Greenmarket Co., which
delivers local food to businesses in NYC; GrowNYC’s Wholesale Greenmarket,
which facilitates sales between wholesale buyers and local farmers; as well as
Farmers Markets and Food Hubs which directly connect the farmer to the
purchaser.

Along with the local food procurement guidelines is a recommendation to
agencies and vendors that the food purchased be sustainable by concentrating
on seasonal foods.

source:
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2012a%2Fpr211-12.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1


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###Thanks to Glenda Neff and Fern Gale Estrow for sharing this announcement.

I'd like to point out that the policy process for these new guidelines was a very important feature of its success.  While I and other staff researched models at the New York City Council, we looked to other places like San Francisco and Albany County and Illinois, which had all been working on policies to increase procurement of local foods.  

We learned you need two things for successful policy change-- first, you need to have leaders in government, like Speaker Quinn and Councilwoman Brewer, who set it as a priority, and second, these kinds of policy changes have to happen in a collaborative way. It took nearly a year's worth of research into existing state, federal, and local laws and regulations to understand what our policy window was.  Additionally, a fabulous team of legal staffs and I had countless conversations and meetings with staff in the administration.  In the end, we decided the best way to move forward was to enact legislation that would provide the outline for policy change- asking for better tracking of food sourcing and requiring the administration to create the guidelines themselves and train staff, rather than unilaterally setting broad mandates.  In doing so, both branches of government had ownership over the process and outcome.  While this might be a slower process, I believe the outcome is much stronger.

This is indeed a proud day for all of the New York City food systems advocates- both within government and outside it!

Sarah Brannen

On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 11:20 PM, Fern Gale Estrow - fge2 <fge2 AT earthlink.net> wrote:

A very important step and part of FoodWorks ( http://council.nyc.gov/html/action_center/food.shtml ) , a comprehensive plan for NYC that sets a bold vision for a more sustainable food system...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: glendaneff <glenda_neff AT juno.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Subject: [foodpolicyannounce] NYC Announces Local Food Procurement Guidelines
To: foodpolicyannounce AT yahoogroups.com


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 12, 2012
No. 211
www.nyc.gov

MAYOR BLOOMBERG, SPEAKER QUINN AND DEPUTY MAYOR GIBBS ANNOUNCE LOCAL FOOD PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES

New York City is One of First Major Cities with Specific Local Food Initiatives

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda I. Gibbs today announced a set of guidelines encouraging City agencies to procure more food products grown, produced or harvested in New York State and to work with vendors to track current purchasing of NYS food where information available. New York City is one of the first major cities to develop a specific initiative on local food procurement.

"The City's purchasing of New York food is good for our local economy and our health, as well as having the potential to be less expensive for the City and its taxpayers," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Providing agencies with more tools to foster the purchasing of food grown, produced, harvested, or processed in New York State will enable more New Yorkers to enjoy fresher, more seasonal food."

           "These guidelines were born out of FoodWorks, a comprehensive food policy blueprint to meet the needs of our growing population and achieve a healthier, more sustainable food system," said Council Speaker Quinn. "As part of this plan, the Council passed legislation requiring the City to develop new procurement guidelines, encouraging purchasing from regional farmers and other food producers by City agencies, leveraging our economic influence as a major food buyer. New York City is second only to the United States military in institutional food purchasing. That's an enormous power in the marketplace. And, if we consciously drive more of our purchasing locally, we're going to see a significant impact in the local economy."

           "As one of the first major cities with specific policies around local food procurement, New York City is again leading the way when it come to healthy initiatives," said Deputy Mayor Gibbs. "Seasonal, fresher produce is just one of the benefits of locally purchased food and we have the additional benefit of knowing we're contributing to the local economy."

"I, along with the Council, and with much credit to Speaker Quinn, have become a strong advocate for local agriculture which led me to introduce the legislation that became the guidelines released today," said Councilmember Gale A. Brewer, Chair of the Governmental Operations Committee. "We can provide locally grown food to city agencies as well as the kitchens of New Yorkers. Since my July 7, 2011 New York State Farm and Infrastructure tour in Orange and Ulster Counties, it's clear to me that we have the production and processing capacity to partner with our farmers, get healthier, teach our kids to eat right, grow the economy, and save money. I encourage City agencies to embrace these guidelines by purchasing more locally grown and regionally processed foods in our agencies and even our schools, and I applaud the Administration for creating group purchasing partnerships to help non-profits buy more locally as well."

"Strengthening urban-rural linkages is critical to creating a healthy food system and preserving our food shed," said Food Policy Coordinator Kim Kessler. "By giving City agencies the ability to make more local purchases, we can provide more opportunities to local farmers, while increasing access to fresh, seasonal foods in our City agencies."

As part of FoodWorks, a comprehensive plan that sets a bold vision for a more sustainable food system, the City Council passed legislation requiring the City to develop new food procurement guidelines to encourage agencies to purchase from regional providers, harnessing the potential to be a powerful and major food purchaser.

Under the new guidelines, agencies are encouraged to review their current "menu" to identify areas where a currently procured product might be replaced with an alternative product available from New York State, such as changing oranges to apples.

Additionally, city agencies may grant a "price preference" for New York State food, e.g., agencies may determine that it is appropriate to award a particular contract to a bidder offering New York State food products whose price falls within 10% of the lowest responsive, responsible bidder's price, where that low bidder does not offer New York State food products.

A goal of the initiative is to help other city agencies to build on successes of the Department of Educations's SchoolFood, which currently buys an estimated $25 million worth of regional products with most of it coming from New York State, equaling at least 14 percent of the City's total food budget; the new guidelines encourage other City agencies to follow suit. (In FY 11, DOE spent $142.3 million on food purchases and of that amount 18% was spent on locally produced food. FY 12 from July to December, DOE spent $64.4 million on food purchases and of that amount 18.4% was spent on locally produced food.)

To help its nonprofit human service partners leverage their purchasing power and reduce administrative costs, the City has established a group purchasing partnership with Essensa, and worked to ensure the availability of New York State food products.

Along with the Group Purchasing partnership, the City also outlines other methods of local food purchasing such as through Greenmarket Co., which delivers local food to businesses in NYC; GrowNYC's Wholesale Greenmarket, which facilitates sales between wholesale buyers and local farmers; as well as Farmers Markets and Food Hubs which directly connect the farmer to the purchaser.

Along with the local food procurement guidelines is a recommendation to agencies and vendors that the food purchased be sustainable by concentrating on seasonal foods.

- 30 -

Contact:  Stu Loeser / Samantha Levine    (212) 788-2958
Zoe Tobin (Speaker Quinn)   (212) 788-7116

Fern Gale Estrow, MS, RD, CDN
Founder
FGE Food & Nutrition Team
200 West 18th Street, Suite 5G
New York, NY 10011
212-691-5154
Festrow AT fgeteam.com
Twitter: fge2

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Sarah Brannen
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twitter: @sarah_brannen

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Comfood is no longer available to post jobs or internships, apprenticeships, 
or voluntary opportunities.  Please use the new list -  Comfoodjobs

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