Outreach Programs for Chinese Community to Access Culturally Relevant Foods Through Local CSA Models

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: focus group, workshop
• Sustainable Communities: employment opportunities, local and regional food systems, public participation, food sovereignty, food sovereignty, food sovereignty

Choy Division and Gentle Time Farm, two Chinese owned and operated CSA farms in New York’s Hudson Valley are proposing to investigate and attempt to alleviate barriers Asian community in New York City face when accessing culturally relevant foods through local Community Support Agriculture (CSA) models, especially with Asian families, elders and low income folks, subgroups of Asian community in which the CSA model has historically a hard time reaching. We propose running a variety of CSA education programs, in Mandarin and Cantonese, with community based organizations in New York City that have existing relationships with the target populations. We also propose creating a variety of Chinese language documents about what a CSA is, why it’s important, and how you can join. We’d also make these materials accessible online so that other farms may use the documents to market the importance of their CSA projects.   

1. This project seeks to investigate and attempt to alleviate barriers Asian communities in New York City face when accessing culturally relevant foods through local Community Support Agriculture (CSA) models, especially with Asian families, elders and low income folks, subgroups of Asian community in which the CSA model has historically had a hard time reaching. 

2. This project seeks to host a number of CSA education programming and workshops in Mandarin and Cantonese for the underserved Chinese community in New York City. In these workshops we aim to provide Chinese speakers with comprehensive CSA information, create a space that encourages dialogue in order to better adapt CSA models to better welcome and address community needs, and use culturally relevant and sparsely available Asian produce to connect Chinese farmers with urban Chinese communities. 

3. This project seeks to make Mandarin and Cantonese CSA proportional material accessible online to other Asian led farm projects to help them connect with harder to reach community members that have historically not been able to access a local CSA due to the fact that most CSA promotion and education does not circulate within these subgroups as much as with connected and more affluent Chinese community.