Local to Global: The Right to Food in Practice

recognized right to food, with a particular focus on food insecurity in New York City and its connections to global food justice movements. Panelists will draw on expertise spanning international human rights frameworks, global food justice movements, New York City governance, urban food policy, and the implementation of food-related policies at both local and global levels. Together, they will discuss the challenges of food insecurity in New York City and around the world, while exploring policy frameworks and approaches to ensuring greater access to food, including work being done by local Hunter partners such as the Purple Apron Food Pantry and the NYC Food Policy Center. Council Member Gale A. Brewer represents the 6th Council District, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Brewer chairs the Committee on Governmental Operations, State Federal Legislation. She is a member of the Committees on Aging, Consumer Worker Protection, Contracts, Criminal Justice, Education, Immigration, and the Subcommittees on Senior Centers Food Security and Early Childhood Education. She is a member of the Progressive Caucus and serves as Co-Chair of the Women’s Caucus. Prior to her current term in the Council, Brewer served as Manhattan Borough President from 2014-2021 and represented the 6th Council District from 2002-2013. Before elected office, she served as Chief of Staff to Council Member Ruth Messinger, NYC Deputy Public Advocate, Director of the city’s Federal Office, and Executive Director of the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women. Bewer has taught at CUNY and Barnard College for many years. She holds an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and did her undergraduate work at Columbia University and Bennington College. She lives with her husband Cal Snyder and they have a grown son. In the past, she had many foster children. Smita Narula is the Haub Distinguished Professor of International Law at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and Director of its Global Center for Environmental Legal Studies. She has published widely on human rights and food systems, and has helped shape policy, legal, and community-led responses to social justice and ecological challenges worldwide. She previously served as legal advisor to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Before joining Pace, she was Interim Director of the Human Rights Program at Hunter College and Associate Professor of Clinical Law and Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. Dr. Jenny Schrum works as the New Jersey Office of the Food Security Advocate’s Director of Research and Evaluation. Her role includes establishing food security theoretical and operational understanding as well as implementing research efforts to recognize multi-sector best practices and gaps in understanding. Prior to this role, Jenny worked as Director of Strategy Evaluation at City Green, a New Jersey non-profit implementing sustainable agriculture, environmental education, and a statewide Good Food Bucks program. Jenny started her career at Horton’s Kids in Washington D.C. where she managed a community garden installed by Michelle Obama and established food security-focused programming such as a food pantry, farmer’s market, and nutrition education. Jenny is the inaugural recipient of The Hunter College New York City Food Policy Center's Regional Food Policy Leadership Award. Jenny holds a PhD and Master of Social Work degree from Rutgers University and a Master of Public Health degree from George Washington University. Moderated by Dr. Mark Chatarpal, Executive Director of the NYC Food Policy Center and a Doctoral Lecturer in the Department of Nutrition of Public Health at Hunter College, City University of New York.