Highlights from our Climate Week NYC Convening
During this year’s Climate Week NYC, FoodStream hosted Global Impacts & Local Solutions: Understanding Our Interconnected Food Systems, a special convening that brought together leaders across policy, finance, education, sustainability, and technology.
The event brought together global and local leaders to explore how international policy shifts ripple through supply chains, economies, and communities. The goal of the event was to better understand the complex interplay of the different sectors, levels and stakeholders involved in modern food systems, and to identify challenges and potential solutions.
Attendees were divided into five roundtable groups to discuss and collaborate on key areas of the food system: Education, Policy, Business & Economics, Technology, and Sustainability. Each table was guided by a firestarter, a leader who helped spark dialogue and synthesize ideas from diverse local and global perspectives.
The discussions were led by:
Jeremy Walter, Director of School Food Policy and Innovation, NYC Department of Education, representing Education
Shalini Unnikrishnan, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), representing Sustainability
Ora Kemp, Director, NYC Mayor’s Office of Food Policy, representing Policy
Maria Elena Varas, Strategy Leader in Food Systems & Sustainability, EY (Ernst & Young), representing Business & Economics
Vishal Ahluwalia, Founder & CEO, KeeperAI, representing Technology
We were honored to be invited by Matt Chavez to host this special convening at Idealist.org whose mission to connect people and purpose aligns closely with FoodStream’s work. The morning began with a keynote from Richard Cumming, CEO of FoodStream, who shared our vision to build the intelligence layer of food security, a digital infrastructure that connects food surplus, logistics, and education to create more resilient and equitable food systems.
Together, these conversations captured a powerful range of insights spanning government, education, consulting, and innovation. Below are some of the key perspectives that emerged from each topic area.
Education & Sustainability
Our discussions explored how education can play a transformative role in shaping healthier food systems. A recurring theme was the need to shift narratives and counter misinformation. Participants emphasized that children often don’t feel ownership over food education, which weakens their connection to healthy eating. Misperceptions about taste further distance kids from nutritious foods.
The conversation also touched on the complexity of large-scale systems like New York City’s Department of Education, one of the biggest food procurement systems in the country. While the system feeds millions, it is also one of the most wasteful due to federal requirements and logistical hurdles. This creates opportunities to study what is working, what is failing, and how to introduce more sustainable practices. Participants highlighted the importance of mapping systems, designing for resilience, and using storytelling to bring stakeholders together.
Food Policy
Participants stressed a multi-level intervention for impact approach. To achieve this, policy makers should encourage more engagement between stakeholders to help remove barriers between producers, distributors and consumers. This will encourage innovation and efficiency. With that in mind, participants suggested policy makers should incentivise investment in local production, innovation and food production infrastructure.
At the local New York City level, the adoption of a NYC Food Bill of Rights was proposed. This would be designed with the goal of improving food security and equity in the New York City food system. To achieve this policymakers should encompass leveraging education to engage and inform communities and utilize food metric reporting data to address areas with the biggest need.
Economy & Business
Economic discussions revolved around the potential of entrepreneurship and innovation to reshape food systems. Funding through venture capital, philanthropy, and incubators could be used to incentivise investment in local food production, circular systems, and access to funding for food and agriculture projects.
Technology & Innovation
The technology session focused on how information technology like artificial intelligence and data systems can address inefficiencies in food production, distribution and storage.
To tackle issues like food loss and food waste, lack of infrastructure, reliable tracking and inefficient storage, participants suggested the use of drones and satellite imagery for disaster assessment, affordable data systems for food banks and pantries, and policy incentives like tax breaks to encourage companies to share technology with non-profits.
Conclusion
From the collaboration of the participants in this event, several powerful cross-sector themes emerged:
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Changing narratives around food can strengthen understanding of healthy diets, reconnect people to where food comes from, and increase community ownership of local food systems.
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AI and information technology hold promise for improving efficiency, reducing food loss and waste, and building more resilient food infrastructures.
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Targeted policy and systemic interventions are essential to link global frameworks with local impact, ensuring that communities benefit directly from innovation and investment.
At FoodStream, we’re building the intelligence layer of food security, connecting people, data, and technology to move food faster, smarter, and more equitably. Our mission is to increase access to nutritious food, enhance community well-being, and reduce waste through collaboration, innovation, and education.
Through our FoodStream Learn initiative, we’re feeding and educating thousands of children weekly across NYC with hands-on food systems education, cooking lessons, and healthy eating programs integrated directly into schools. At the same time, our digital platform facilitates the movement of tens of thousands of pounds of fresh food each week, helping community partners reach families in need while reducing waste.
This event reinforced what we already know: the future of food access depends on data-driven collaboration and connecting innovation with impact.
We invite you to stay connected, explore the findings, and join the growing network shaping the next era of food resilience.
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