Food Council Convening

Food Council Convening

Details

Building a Chinatown Food Council: A Convening on Policy, Partnerships, and the Future of Our Food System Food and beverage is the lifeblood of Manhattan’s Chinatown, sustaining small businesses while serving as a cultural gateway for the community. At the same time, Asian-owned farms and food producers across New York State are working to fill critical supply chain gaps and bring culturally relevant, locally grown products to market. On Thursday, September 5th, Welcome to Chinatown and Catskills Grain Alliance will host a convening to strengthen the upstate–downstate connection and chart the path toward establishing a Chinatown Food Council. This gathering will bring together farmers, food system advocates, community organizations, policymakers, and Chinatown food businesses to: Build deeper relationships between producers and purveyors. Identify gaps in infrastructure (such as cold storage and logistics) and opportunities for sustainable sourcing. Explore how a neighborhood-level food policy council can inform city and state policy to better support culturally specific food systems. Develop shared priorities and a roadmap for short-, medium-, and long-term action. Unlike past convenings that focused on information gathering, this will be a working session centered on “strategic doing” — moving from conversation to action. Participants will leave with concrete next steps, defined roles, and momentum to carry this work forward as we build the Food Coucnil. 📍 Location: Chinatown Small Business Innovation Hub 🗓 Date: Thursday, September 5, 2025 ⏰ Time: 12 - 4PM This session will be facilitated by Rob Levit, who specializes in guiding communities through collaborative planning processes to create actionable outcomes