Laurie M. Tisch Awards Green Cart Grants

April 16, 2012

The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund announced ten community-based organizations throughout the five boroughs that will each receive a $7,500 grant to provide services and business training to NYC Green Cart vendors. The grants, awarded by the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City in coordination with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Karp Resources, will enable the organizations to recruit and educate NYC Green Cart permit applicants, and to provide workshops and one-on-one assistance to help current vendors be successful.

The NYC Green Cart Initiative works to increase the availability of fresh produce in high-need areas of the city. The Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund provided start-up support to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City to launch the Initiative in 2008, and provided new funding in 2012 to support the community grants and additional strategies to sustain the initiative.  There are now approximately 500 active Green Cart permits, and the Initiative has created an estimated 800 jobs. 

The new grants to community organizations are part of the City’s strategy to build a network system of local support for the Green Carts, and are aligned with the Illumination Fund’s commitment to supporting community-driven programs that are at the intersection of healthy food and economic development.

“It’s especially important to support the organizations that have deep roots in the communities where the NYC Green Carts operate,” said Laurie M. Tisch, president of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. “Community-based organizations can help recruit and support vendors who know the neighborhood, local residents and store owners; in many cases these organizations are able to relate to the vendors through their native language or fluency in their cultures.”

Grant recipients include:

• WHEDco (Bronx);
• Mary Mitchell Center (Bronx);
• Vamos Unidos (Bronx);
• Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger (Brooklyn);
• Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation (Brooklyn);
• Bon Secours (Manhattan/Washington Heights);
• DRUM (Queens);
• Make the Road (Queens, Staten Island and Brooklyn);
• El Centro de Hospitalidad (Staten Island), or Project Hospitality;
• Street Vendor Project (All boroughs).
  

“We are proud to be a part of the ever-extending network of the NYC Green Cart Initiative, and look forward to being armed with the tools to support the local vendors and help the community here in the Bronx,” said Nancy Biberman, Founder and President of WHEDco, a community development organization based in the South Bronx, and one of the ten grantees. “It is important for us to be a part of a city-wide program that makes an impact in long-term neighborhood development.”