Region receives $100,000 federal grant to study food access

Local officials suspect there’s a direct relationship between neighborhood poverty rates and access to local food.

With the help of a $100,000 federal grant, they will be able to study that connection and figure out ways to overcome it.

The grant, which will be administered by Rust to Green Utica, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Resource Center for Independent Living and the City of Utica, aims to increase food access by “promoting coordination and partnerships between public, private and nonprofit partners,” according to a news release from those organizations.

“Together, I think we’re really going to make a huge difference in this community’s food system,” said Ron Bunce, executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Utica.

The grant award was announced at a news conference Wednesday at the downtown Harza Building, where city grant writer Pamela Jardieu said future meetings about the study could be held. It was also attended by Mayor David Roefaro, County Executive Anthony Picente and other officials.

City Public Relations Director Angelo Roefaro said the mayor pushed for the grant in the absence of federal earmarks this year.

Overall, fourteen grants will be awarded to communities throughout the country, according to the news release.

Further grant funding could become available and help implement some of the opportunities identified in the study once it is finished, Jardieu said.

Original article from the UticaOd.com