CSA in NYC
CSAs at Work
Facilitator: Carly Hutchinson
Presenters: Maggie Janes, Tribeca CSA; Paul Wasserman, Lehman College; Karen Griswold, Lehman College
I. CSAs in the Workplace
A. Benefits
- Convenience of location (time saving/easy access)
- For shareholders
- For farmers
- Establishing/reinforcing community of employees
- Diversity of shareholders
- Provides opportunity to explain CSAs, evangelize
- Through existing communications vehicles, established infrastructures and frameworks
- To a captive audience
- Support of HR department
- Wellness programs (promotes good nutrition)
- Sustainability initiatives
B. Challenges
- Refrigeration (though this is generally not an issue with other pick-up spots)
- Conflicts between job & CSA responsibilities
- Roles/needs clearly defined with employer
- Possibility of administrative buy-in
- Dirty vegetables in a clean environment (should speak to building management)
- Sufficient employee buy-in is necessary
- Insurance? Liability? (Bdg. Mgmt. concerns)
- Employer interest/Building management concerns
- Reason? End result? Community focus? Motivation?
- Loss of farmer (insulated by workplace)
- Pre-established work community generally not focused on farm issues
- **Different problems arise depending on the workplace**
- Time commitment for organizer (true of all CSAs)
- Difficulty transporting (do people commute long distances to work?)
II. Presentors
a. Maggie Janes, TriBeCa CSA
- Workplace: Public Health Solutions, TriBeCa
- 300 staff
- HR Wellness Committee, $10,000 budget per year
- Process:
- Paula Lukats, JF CSA in NYC Program Manager, spoke to workplace about CSAs (knowledgeable outside perspective)
- Facilitated discussion, brainstorming & mini survey sent to employees (to gauge interest levels)
- “Memo of Understanding” sent to management to work out details with superiors
- building management NOT on board
- Result: No CSA was setup in the workplace
- Instead, she promoted two pre-existing local CSAs which several employees joined
- Also promoted sustainable agriculture through other activities/initiatives/health consciousness
- Screening of Food Inc.
- Pedometer challenges (and yoga, pilates & salsa)
- Cooking demos
- Changes in behavior are challenging
b. Paul Wasserman & Karen Griswold, Lehman College
- Workplace: Lehman College Adult Learning
- E.S.L. edu., GED training, for example
- Community learning program at college, ~600-700 students
- “Health Literacy” as a concern of the school
- Bronx Health Collaborative
- Promotes nutrition, health
- Healthy eating in low income communities?
- Affordable?
- Educational strand + Question of access to good healthy food
- CSA as possible course of action
- Potential benefits:
- Access to fresh vegetables + education (2 sided approach)
- Mixed income/diverse membership
- Lehman took out 1 share in local CSA, weekly pickups
- Problems:
- No school in majority of CSA season
- Pickup on Thursday afternoon, no school on Friday
- Vegetables split mostly between few staff members in on Thursday or Friday
- Other more successful actions
- Started community vegetable garden
- Collaboration with Lehman’s health sciences dept.
- Program with Cornell Extension + work in garden, use produce in cooking demo
- Farmer’s market at Lehman?
- College as a center for healthy food/eating
