Riis Settlement is proud to announce that The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund has awarded a grant of $75,000 to our Creating Healthy NYCHA Communities Through Food project. The grant is being made through United Neighborhood Houses (UNH), an umbrella organization of New York City settlement houses. UNH will help us to share lessons, problem solve, provide technical assistance and work with an outside evaluator to help identify lessons for replication. The one year grants have a start date of October 1.
This new project is designed to increase access to and use of healthy foods among Queensbridge New York City Housing Authority residents. The Riis Settlement Healthy T.A.S.T.E (Together Accessing Strategies for Thoughtful Eating) initiative will take our healthy food initiatives to the next level by focusing, on building awareness and skills for using and preparing healthy foods and increasing knowledge about making healthy choices on a fixed budget. It includes education and awareness-building activities designed to help families prepare more meals using fresh produce and encourage behavior change that will positively impact overall health and well being. In particular, Riis Settlement plans to use this award to help support healthy food awareness activities such as forming a Resident Healthy Food Committee to engage residents in the development and implementation process of these projects, presenting communal meals at Riis Settlement that present delicious, seasonal foods that reflect the diversity of our community and the establishment of mobile food-prep stations offering sample tastings of healthy foods at various community events. The project also includes healthy food education activities such as Monthly Healthy food skill building workshops, and an internship program to train individuals to work as demo chefs for our “Tasty Stations” and as assistants in Riis Settlement’s kitchen.
We expect that Riis Settlement’s program will be a real benefit to our community by providing consistent exposure to healthy foods and hopefully improving overall well-being by counteracting the negative impacts of some chronic diseases prevalent in the community. We also hope that the chefs we are able to train will become advocates for healthy eating who can encourage other NYCHA families to make positive changes as well. This project will integrate perfectly with our Grow NYC Food box program, City Harvest mobile market and community garden activities. If you are a NYCHA Queensbridge resident and are interested in any aspect of this program, please contact us an stay tuned for upcoming events to be held at Riis Settlement’s Queensbridge headquarters.
