The Newburgh Food Project

The Newburgh Food Project brings together residents, faith and community-based organizations, food retailers, growers, and City leadership to contribute to build a local food system that provides equitable access to healthy, nutritious foods for all residents. 

Initiated in 2021 with grants from the USDA Urban Agriculture Innovative Production program and NY Health Foundation, the Newburgh Food Project is the first in-depth study of the City of Newburgh’s regional food system and the first to elevate the voices of both City leaders and City residents to create an equitable food system for all residents.

Projects that come from the study will provide:

  • access to healthy, local food,

  • economic opportunities for local farmers and producers,

  • education and job training for Newburgh youth, and

  • improvements in the environmental health outcomes of the community.

The project's initial phase (2021-2024) focused on employing innovative methodologies to intentionally build community awareness and trust.

  • Through a focused online communications strategy, we reached thousands of community residents, organizations and community leaders. 

  • We developed a transdisciplinary Task Force of 30 residents representing local food activists, urban growers, local farmers, municipal leaders, health care providers, educators and environmental advocates who worked together to assess the status of the food system in the City of Newburgh. Task Force members met monthly and were key players in developing Community Food Surveys (see information below), a community outreach strategy, and data collection modeling. 

  • NUFFI hired and trained eight Community Ambassadors to help establish trust and build a good working relationship with residents. As community members with deep interpersonal relationships throughout the community, these ambassadors created a feedback loop about the project between residents, local businesses, religious congregations, and community-based organizations in their neighborhoods. Through community canvassing and community in-reach they gained valuable information about food security needs and other issues affecting the health and environment of the community. 

  • In 2023, NUFFI released Community Food Surveys to identify gaps in the City of Newburgh food system by directly engaging with consumers, food growers, pantries, retailers, and civic organizations. The Community Food Surveys were distributed in four languages English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Arabic. Prior to distributing the surveys, the Community Ambassadors conducted over 20 meetings throughout the community to let residents know about the project and the surveys. Community Ambassadors and NUFFI staff tabled at 50 community events assisting residents in completing surveys, visited local businesses to encourage business owners to complete the retail survey, and held meetings with the directors of food pantries, local farmers, and growers. 

  • Over 620 surveys were completed, and 130 community meetings were held. This resulted in an unprecedented amount of detail/data about food access in the City of Newburgh and encouraged the development of a solid base of individuals and organizations interested in addressing how to establish an equitable food system for all residents. With the help of the Benjamin Center for Public Policy Initiatives at SUNY New Paltz, NUFFI compiled information into a comprehensive report. 

With support once again from the NY Health Foundation, our next step is to harness the energy, identifying people, potential systems, programs and policies that will best meet the needs of Newburgh residents.

Just having data and people committed to establishing an equitable food system for all residents will not translate into a sustainable plan with actionable programming to bring about systemic change. There needs to be a well-developed and dedicated plan of action that continues to assemble the resources - people, political and financial - needed to ensure a Comprehensive Plan for Urban Agriculture in the City of Newburgh will be implemented and achieve long-term sustainability. 

On Tuesday evening at 5:30PM, June 3, 2025, we’ll kick off the next phase of the Newburgh Food Project.  Join us at the Activity Center located at the Delano-Hitch Recreation Park, 401 Washington Street where we will share the initial findings of the Newburgh Food Project and talk about next steps we can take as a community to continue to address food and nutrition insecurity in the City of Newburgh.