East Brooklyn Mutual Aid

During the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, EBMA started to support community members affected by COVID-19, particularly immunocompromised and unemployed people, by providing free groceries and social support. Since those beginnings, we have successfully distributed more than one million pounds of food to over 100,000 residents through Black Radish Home Delivery, in which we source low-cost groceries from predominantly Black distributors and farmers and deliver them directly to the doors of hungry New Yorkers.

We have an active board with members representing significant sectors related to our programs and offer the following programs. 

• Black Radish Home Delivery provides healthy food to elderly people, disabled folks, and low-income families. 
• Community days support BIPOC farmers by providing labor to farmers and educating community members about land, food, health, and nutrition.
• Six farmer's markets that support local BIPOC producers will operate from May-December at Christian Cultural Center (CCC).

EBMA will establish a multi-stakeholder Black Radish Grocery Store at Chestnut Commons, a low-income development building. This pilot store will support the 250 households in the building and work with local and regional producers to promote healthier and more nutritious food options. The ultimate goal is to provide a holistic approach to address the interrelated needs of the Afro-diasporic community. EBMA is driven by a larger vision, using food and culture as the primary entry points into community health.

• We enlisted pro bono the services of an attorney (Fried Frank), an architect (Studio Modh), and a project developer (Sterling Project Development) for the Black Radish Grocery Store at Chestnut Commons.
• We are in lease negotiations and have drawn architectural plans for Black Radish at Chestnut Commons, a pilot store for our food hub concept.
• We are creating plans and the operational infrastructure for a food hub in East New York in the Industrial business zone with the Community Land Trust of East New York, The Community Board, and the Economic Development Corp of New York. EBMA will oversee the logistics and operations of the food hub food operation.

Our organization is focused on improving the healthy food options in select neighborhoods of East Brooklyn. East New York has become the city’s third-largest food swamp, an area where healthy food options are outnumbered by abundant fast food, junk food outlets, convenience stores, and liquor stores (https://citylimits.org/2018/05/21/new-york-citys-biggest-food-swamps/ ). The lack of healthy food options results in poor health for the community’s residents. The East Brooklyn Food Hub will address the historical inequities that have led to disproportionate health issues, labor inequity, economic injustice, and instability with access to fresh food.