Food & Beverage

GrowNYC Fresh Food Box Program

GrowNYC's Fresh Food Box Program is a food access initiative that enables under-served communities to purchase fresh, healthy, and primarily regionally grown produce well below traditional retail prices. Through the power of collaborative purchasing, Fresh Food Box customers purchase for $14-15 what would cost $20-$30 in a store. All Fresh Food Box sites accept SNAP/EBT and Health Bucks, to make the program even more affordable.
 
The produce included in each Fresh Food Box is the best of what’s seasonally available. From July through November, Fresh Food Box sources from farms in the Northeast; in the winter and spring, Northeast produce is supplemented with produce from carefully vetted farms in Southern states, like Florida. This ensures Fresh Food Box provides a wide variety of fresh produce year-round while driving sales of locally-available items such as apples, root vegetables, eggs, grains, and dried beans. 
 
How Fresh Food Box works:
  • Visit a Fresh Food Box site near you
  • Pay $14 (or $15 at workplace sites) in cash, credit/debit, EBT/SNAP, or Health Bucks for next week’s share
  • Return the following week to pick up your share containing 10-15 pounds of fresh, high-quality produce
The nearest locations:
  • Bellevue Hospital at 462 1st Avenue (at 27th Street)
  • Lenox Hill Neighborhood House at 70th St. and 1st Avenue

Mediating Establishment and Neighbor Disputes (MEND)

The Mayor announced MEND NYC, a program to provide mediation to New Yorkers and hospitality businesses across the city who are in disputes over quality-of-life issues. This is a free, innovative alternative that can bring lasting solutions to longstanding local issues, which are tracked by complaints to 311.  

MEND (Mediating Establishment and Neighbor Disputes) NYC will serve hundreds of New York residents and businesses each year, creating opportunities to resolve disputes before they escalate to the need for formal enforcement, such as issuing summonses, which can add financial hardship to small businesses operating under new rules and guidelines. Mediation is a constructive conversation between people in conflict that is facilitated by an experienced, neutral third person. Mediation provides participants an opportunity to collaboratively design creative solutions and repair tense relationships. MEND will get businesses and New Yorkers to communicate directly and establish respectful ongoing dialogue, helping them to compromise and coexist. 

The Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) will administer the MEND NYC program in partnership with the Office of Nightlife at the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. OATH is the City’s central independent administrative law court where summonses issued by the City’s various enforcement agencies are filed.  Also housed in OATH is the City’s central mediation center, the Center for Creative Conflict Resolution, which has traditionally been responsible for mediating City government workplace conflict.  MEND NYC will represent the first time OATH’s Center for Creative Conflict Resolution makes its services and expertise widely available to the general public, with mediations taking place outside of the OATH court system hearing process.  OATH has professional mediators and conflict resolution trainers at its Center but OATH has also worked diligently to partner with conflict resolution groups and law schools across the City to build up a roster of trained mediators who can assist the MEND NYC program.  These mediators will be working pro bono and will help ensure that the MEND NYC program is available to all who want to participate in this free option. 

The Office of Nightlife, a non-enforcement liaison between the City and the nightlife industry and community, will be actively referring cases where there may be chronic or urgent quality of life complaints related to a restaurant, bar, or other nightlife venue. The Office of Nightlife will also provide education and support to businesses to assist with compliance and with maintaining good relationships with their neighbors.

Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program

The Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) is a state-run program open to seniors 60 or older who have a qualifying income. As part of the program, seniors are sent special gift certificates to spend on produce at participating farmers markets.

The farmers market on Wednesdays, from 8 AM - 4 PM, at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza on 47th St. accepts FMNP.

To sign up for FMNP you would need to contact the New York City Department of the Aging either on their website or by calling 311.
 

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