BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) – Brooklyn parents and their children marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to City Hall Thursday to fight for more funding for fresh produce in their neighborhoods.
Tired of a lack of fresh food options available, the group made posters and protested to push for more money to tackle food insecurity and for increased access to healthier fresh food.
“Low-income neighborhoods are chronically underfunded for fresh food,” said Nancie Katz, the co-founder of the nonprofit Seeds in the Middle. Katz helped organize the rally Thursday to fight for funding. “We didn’t get any city council funding at all,” Katz said. “This is very much a mom and dad movement.”
Her grassroots group has already helped create more than a dozen fresh farm stands across central Brooklyn in neighborhoods such as Flatbush, Brownsville, Crown Heights and Boerum Hill.
Mustafa El-Bay is one of the founders of the Gowanus Neighborhood Coalition for Justice. He runs a farm stand at the Gowanus Houses in Brooklyn and said there are limited options for families there to find fresh food.
“CTown and that’s it [for fresh food]. And we have 5,000 families here,” El-Bay said. “It’s very bad. Very bad.”
To help the families in Brooklyn, you can donate through the ioby crowdfunding platform.
