Open Call for Board Members

As Equity Advocates moves into its third year of operation, we are looking to build upon the leadership of our small but engaged Board of Directors. Equity Advocates values and seeks diverse Board leadership as defined by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic backgrounds, nationality, disability, and professional level. To ensure that our organization is truly community driven and that those most impacted by food inequality have a strong voice in our decision-making structure and advocacy priorities, we strongly encourage applications and nominations from directly impacted individuals, including BIPOC, women of color, and individuals from diverse backgrounds and identities (race, class, gender, LGBTQIA+, ability, etc.).

Ideal candidates will have some or all of the following experience and qualifications:

  • Board experience (particularly non-profit).

  • Grant writing and fundraising from institutions, foundations, corporations and/or high net worth individuals.

  • Engaging in advocacy campaigns, policy change, and/or community organizing focused on poverty, food access and racial equity. Established relationships with Federal, NYS or NYC policy makers and/or staff.

  • Experience working in a community based nonprofit focused on fighting poverty and improving healthy food access.

  • Experience implementing racial equity frameworks for organizations.

  • Nonprofit management, legal or financial expertise.

Board Commitments Include:

  • Commit to a 2 year term with a possibility of consecutive terms

  • Attend at least 3 board meetings annually (currently virtual)

  • Stay informed about what's going on at the organization, become familiar with finances, budget, policy priorities and resource needs

  • Board members are asked to provide financial support to the organization through a minimum “give or get” donation of $5,000 per calendar year, inclusive of in kind support.

  • Commit to 5-10 hours per month for calls, meetings and project work on behalf of Equity Advocates based on your area of expertise (specifics to be determined together)

  • Advocate for our mission and needs in your own community and various networks

Interested parties should send a resume and short introductory paragraph that answers the following questions to info@nyequityadvocates.org with "2021 Board Members" in the subject line. Deadline is July 30, 2021. Please include answers to these questions in your introductory paragraph:

  1. Why do you want to join the Board of Equity Advocates?

  2. What skills do you anticipate contributing to the organization?

  3. Please describe any personal or professional experience working in and with communities with limited healthy food access.

The Child Nutrition Reauthorization Process and How To Get Involved

Every five years, Congress has an opportunity to improve and strengthen federal child nutrition programs and school meals through the Child Nutrition Reauthorization (CNR) process.  The last version of the bill, the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, expired in 2015 yet many of its programs continue to operate on autopilot. This important legislation funds and sets the rules for critical programs like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); The National School lunch and Breakfast Program and other child and adult food care programs. 

The importance of passing an updated CNR Act is amplified by record high child food insecurity rates, with BIPOC children and their families being hit the hardest by disrupted access to free school meals and overall higher job loss. In 2021, our representatives in Congress have an opportunity to improve the health of millions of children through a strong CNR bill. 

On Thursday, May 13th Equity Advocates and City Harvest co-hosted a webinar on CNR for advocates to share information about key initiatives in the bill, opportunities the pandemic presents for creating new and expanding existing programs, the process for reauthorization, and how you can get involved. To view a recording of the webinar, please click on the link below. 

Recap: Mayoral Forum on The Future of Food

On February 9th, Equity Advocates co-hosted the Mayoral Food Forum 2021: Town Hall on the Future of Food in New York City. Candidates in attendance were Eric Adams; Shaun Donovan; Kathryn Garcia; Ray McGuire; Dianne Morales; Scott Stringer; Loree Sutton; Joycelyn Taylor; and Maya Wiley. Andrew Yang was expected, but unable to attend after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The Forum was co-hosted by Equity Advocates, in collaboration with Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center and NY COVID-19 Food Coalition members, including City Harvest, CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, Food Bank for New York City, Hunger Free America, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy at Columbia University, LiveOn NY, United Way of New York City, UJA-Federation of NY, and West Side Campaign Against Hunger.

Mayoral Candidates at the 2021 Food Forum

As NY1 political anchor Errol Louis, moderator of the Forum, said, “This is an urgent time to be talking about these issues. Up to 2 million New York City residents are struggling against hunger and food insecurity. Malnutrition is at least partly to blame for the higher infection and death rates from COVID-19 in low income neighborhoods and communities of color around the city. We’ve been dealing with this now for almost a year. It has been a challenge all along the way. Both to deal with the immediate emergency and the longer term institutional changes that are needed to get us out of this crisis and make sure we are ready for the next one.”

Over 2,500 attendees listened to topics ranging from how the candidates would address hunger and food insecurity, the quality of school food, competitive wages in food systems jobs, investing in urban agriculture, deeper food governance, strategies for investing in community food sovereignty as well as the city's response to COVID-19. We are proud that Equity Advocates led the effort to include community voice in the forum by collecting questions from the public for the event and that several members of our NY COVID-19 Food Coalition had the opportunity to ask direct questions to the mayoral candidates questions about their food policy priorities and plans. Following the event, candidates were asked to answer a series of questions developed by event hosts on their plans to address food insecurity, sustainability, and workers’ rights.

To watch a full recording of the Mayoral Forum on the Future of Food, click here.