Healthy Food For All Joins Center for Transformative Action

Healthy Food For All Joins Center for Transformative Action at Cornell

Healthy Food For All, a leading community food security program in our region, has moved from its longtime home at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County (CCE Tompkins) to join other social justice projects under the fiscal umbrella of the Center for Transformative Action, an independent 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with Cornell University.

Conceived in 2006 by local farmers in partnership with CCE Tompkins’ agriculture program, Healthy Food For All (HFFA) provides fresh produce to families with limited incomes through affordable community supported agriculture (CSA) shares. HFFA also bolsters farm viability by fairly compensating participating farmers for their products. Now in its 16 year, HFFA has grown from a pilot project of 3 farms enrolling 18 families to a robust collaboration of more than 10 farms that offers over 1,000 youth and adults reliable, dignified and affordable access to fresh produce through subsidized summer and winter CSA shares. Projects such as Food as Medicine, Farm-to-Pantry and Farm-to-Plate that are offered in partnership with healthcare providers, food pantries and transitional housing programs have further expanded HFFA’s reach to the most vulnerable members of our community. A profile recounting HFFA’s beginnings and growth appears in the CCE-Tompkins 2021 Annual Report.

According to Elizabeth Karabinakis, HFFA’s Director since 2008, becoming a project of CTA enables her program to leverage a wider array of administrative services and partnerships to support its growth and expansion, and to focus the program’s work on the service delivery model for which it is seen as a leader nationwide. "With CTA’s support, we look forward to expanding on our tradition of nimble and responsive program development to address community needs and scaling up programs to increase impact.” Karabinakis and her staff have moved with the program and, as employees of CTA, will ensure program continuity. “Of equal importance,” says Karabinakis, “the move will enable farmers who have been key stakeholders and partners in HFFA from the very beginning to step into a more formal leadership role.” HFFA’s new advisory board will comprise half local farmers, and half community partners and Cornell faculty and staff who have content expertise specifically related to HFFA’s programs and goals.

“We at CCE Tompkins are proud to have been able to support the development and growth of Healthy Food For All over the years, and look forward to the next stage in the program’s growth as a project of CTA,” said Graham Savio, Agriculture & Horticulture Issue Leader at CCE Tompkins, who will serve as a member of the new advisory board. “We are happy to build upon our strong relationship with HFFA into the future, and anticipate collaborating with them as community partners on food security work on a regular basis going forward,” he concluded. CCE Tompkins will remain an integral project partner, leveraging the full breadth of Extension resources to support strategic planning, implementation and evaluation going forward.

With questions, please contact Graham Savio at gs695@cornell.edu or (607) 272-2292.To learn more about Healthy Food for All, visit: https://www.healthyfoodforall.org/. Find the Center for Transformative Action online at http://centerfortransformativeaction.org/, and Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County at https://ccetompkins.org/.

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Last updated December 1, 2022