Building Access to Food Through Systems and Solidarity

Summary

BASIS aims to implement a whole-of-community intervention in Brooklyn for improving diet and the social and /built environments for English-, Chinese-, Spanish-, and Bangla-speaking communities. This is achieved through five main pillars: by 1) improving food access (subsidized, culturally tailored fresh produce box program), 2) providing nutrition education, 3) conducting experiential learning (gardening workshops, cooking demonstrations, farm tours, physical activity sessions, arts-based sessions), 4) assisting with economic security (SNAP/WIC enrollment, workforce development, small business owner engagement), and 5) contributing to policy.

Detailed Description

This is a single-site program that will be evaluated over a period of 5 years using a multi-level, mixed methods approach. Each year, culturally appropriate produce will be provided weekly for 20 weeks to community members in Sunset Park and surrounding neighborhoods. Brooklyn Grange in Sunset Park will grow and provide Chinese specific produce and Angel Family Farm will grow and provide Mexican specific produce. Brooklyn Grange's CSA produce box will be valued at $25 and available on a sliding scale (for a fee ranging from $7 to $31 depending on the participant's self-identified situation). In a sliding scale model, each participant contributes the same percentage of income on food but participants can choose the price point they want to pay based on their individual situation and financial resources. Angel Family Farm's subsidized CSA produce box will be valued at $30 and available for a fee of up to $15, which was determined to be acceptable by community members. Participants that receive SNAP benefits can use their EBT card to cover their produce box fees. Education will be offered in the form of nutrition education, cooking tutorials, and farming information provided by staff at Brooklyn Grange. There will be 3 comparison communities of Mexican and Chinese American individuals in NYC as part of the study's evaluation. Individuals from these communities will not be participating in the CSA produce box. For the Mexican community, we will focus on South Bronx where there are dense pockets of Mexican communities. For the Chinese community, we will focus on Chinatown, Manhattan and Flushing, Queens.

Eligibility Criteria

Interventions