In 2018, the Good Food Buffalo Coalition was launched to bring the Good Food Purchasing Program to Western New York because children and all people deserve access to healthy food, and food that values workers, animals, and the environment, while lifting local communities out of poverty.

Our member organizations work collaboratively to advance food and farm policy that centers our communities’ needs and priorities and to implement the Good Food Purchasing Program in Western New York’s public institutions. Together, we educate the community about the food system, increase awareness about impacts and outputs, as well as economic opportunities of the food system, and we advocate that public institutions in Buffalo and Erie County operate in consideration of public values to ensure that those institutions are accountable to the needs of the people and places they work for and around.

We currently have over 35 member organizations. Organizations can join our coalition by completing this online form and individuals can get involved by emailing us via LinkTree.

Instagram: @goodfoodbuffalo
LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/goodfoodbuffalo

Racial justice, youth and community engagement, transparent and inclusive governance structures, and community research have been primary focuses of the Good Food Buffalo Coalition.

Some highlights of our work include:

• Collaborating with local and statewide partners to encourage Governor Hochul to sign the Good Food NY Bill, which passed the NYS Assembly and Senate this year.
• Working to establish a municipal Office of Food Systems and Urban Agriculture in the City of Buffalo.
• Conducting a community-driven action planning process to engage coalition members and the public, ensuring that those most impacted by food injustice in our region guide the Good Food Buffalo Coalition’s next steps towards passing and implementing the Good Food Purchasing Program at Buffalo Public Schools.
• Hosting two Mayoral Food Forums in 2025 for Buffalo’s mayoral candidates, one forum for the Primary Election and one forum for the General Election.
• Hosted a Policy Roundtable discussion in 2022 with national partners and several East Buffalo food justice leaders to learn more about the GFPP’s potential to foster racial justice.
• On-boarded the coalition’s leadership council who hired the coalition’s first director.
• Engagement in 2021 of local producers and growers in a Farmers & Legislators Forum and a NYS Black Farmers Listening Session.
• Families, students, and community members engaged through a local harvest festival event in collaboration with Buffalo Public Schools.
• Supply chain research conducted by the Social Justice in the Global Food System graduate capstone course at the Yale School of the Environment.
• Buffalo Public Schools students engaged in the campaign and their perspectives highlighted through a video and podcasts.
• A report on the state of school food in Buffalo and a policy brief published by coalition member Partnership for the Public Good (PPG).
• Mission, vision, and values statements and a governance structure created and agreed up by the coalition membership.