Today, we are excited to present a special episode of Cities at the Table that will highlight New York City. We recently had the privilege of welcoming Kate McKenzie, the Executive Director of the New York City Mayor's Office of FoodPolicy, right here in Lyon, France, for the Food Capital's Annual General Meeting. We're thrilled to welcome her to the table, where she shares with us the impactful and inspiring food policies she's advancing in New York.

Jessica: Hi Kate.

Kate: Hi Jess.    

Jessica: It’s so great to have you here. Thanks for joining us at the table today. Really great to be here. Can you tell us more about your connection with food and maybe share a remarkable culinary or food experience that made you realize the impact that food can have?    

Kate: You know, I grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania and I didn't realize how fortunate I was. We did not have a lot of money, but my family made sure to really recognize the importance of sitting down together for family meals and also the importance of going to the farmer's market. And for us, that wasn't a fancy thing to do. That was simply where we got the best produce and the freshest produce. I learned to appreciate both the taste of cantaloupe and strawberries. It was that connection with farmers who knew would really inspire me to take a choose a career in food policy. I've had many different culinary experiences, but for me, it's almost less about the meal as it is about the conversation and the people that I'm with, you know, and I think that that's really essential as so much of my work is not about fine dining at all and not about, you know, being a food critic necessarily, but it's about recognizing that people from all walks of life. People could be at a communal table, at a soup kitchen, or at a school meal table, or at a fine dining restaurant. Everyone is having an experience around food. And that truly sets the table for me to be able to think about how we're impacting and influencing for good people's lives.    

Jessica: In June 2025, you were here in Lyon, actually, for the annual general meeting of the Food Capitals and the roundtable that you participated in, where we had quite a few elected officials we heard from other cities, including Lyon. So Lyon is the founder of the Food Capitals network in 2007. And during that roundtable, there were so many interesting things that we can't go over it again today. But I wanted to pick up on a few bits that I think will really interest everyone who's listening. One of the questions you answered, that I loved your answer to, was, what does the plate of New York look like tomorrow?

Kate: I appreciated that question about "what does the plate of the future look like?" Because it gave me an opportunity to share not just about what the food itself is going to look like, but I care and feel really deeply about ensuring that people respect what's on that plate and how it got to our plate. I think that future plate should really represent the value of food and also the time that, our either food service workers or farmers, that it's respectful of those individuals. You know, the plate of people is often just seen in that moment. And my hope for the future is that we are really representing and acknowledging all of the efforts and all parts of the food system before we have the privilege to be able to consume what's on that plate.    
 

Jessica: So speaking of the future, the future plate, in New York, you launched Food Forward NYC, the city's first-ever 10-year food policy plan. Can you tell us a little bit more about that and what were some of the challenges, what have been the successes of it? And how do you hope that will change for New York?    
 

Kate: You know, when I interviewed for the position that I have held now for almost six years, I wanted to put together a food strategy. That was my pitch in my interview: I think it's important for us to have a strategy that demonstrates across all different parts of city government how we can take food policy forward. Shortly after that, we were, like everyone in the world, impacted by the COVID pandemic. So during the pandemic, all New Yorkers became aware of how important a resilient and strong food system is. So whether that was walking into the grocery store and realizing that our shelves were empty or realizing that, you know, we couldn't go out to eat at restaurants. And it really showed that if you have a plan that not just makes sense, but really demonstrates how a vision of food policy can be addressed with concrete and specific goals, it has a life. It has a life beyond elected officials to the opportunity to pull together a holistic food policy that addresses everything from ensuring that New Yorkers have access to healthy and affordable food, but also ensuring that we care deeply about the economy, the food economy. We know that one in four businesses in New York is food adjacent. So there's some connection to food. We also know that ensuring that our infrastructure of food, whether it's cold storage facilities, our grocery stores, our warehouses for food, all of these components are part of food policy. And then finally ensuring that all New Yorkers are not just learning about the plan and thinking about ways to operationalize it, but maybe some of the strategies that we deploy are not working well. We need to hear that, right? So we're trying to build in an element of feedback loops to ensure that the plan is not static, but rather it's very fluid. We could never predict where we are now, you know, four years ago, and we won't be able to predict where we'll be in another four years. But providing those very objective yet comprehensive goals has really enabled so much of the advancements that we've been able to deliver around food policy.

Jessica: Great. Yes, that's so important that those feedback loops are in place to hear back from the community to see what’s working, what's not. That's really great. I'm curious. I can't even imagine the work it takes to put together such a policy. Are there other cities that inspired you? Who do you look to as inspiration when you put this together? What are some cities that we should also be looking at for inspiration?    
 

Kate: I love that question. I feel it is so important. I personally and my team get a lot from talking not just with U.S. cities, but especially with global cities. I was very struck by the Milan Food Policy. And we've been a decade-long member of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact. But, you know, I think it's really important to learn about successes, but I get a lot more from people when I learn about their challenges. You know, whether it is looking at Milan or looking at Brazil or even parts of Boston in the United States. Those are really interesting opportunities for us to not just replicate, but think about how do we lift up what's working in that city, but make sure it lands well in New York.    
 

Jessica: As we're talking about challenges, one of the challenges that you've mentioned before is to ensure access to healthy and sustainable food in schools and to implement new recipes and plant-based recipes. So I know there's a project in New York, the Plant Power Fridays. I love that. Can you tell us more about it? How do you get kids excited about it?    
 

Kate: Yes. So we have our own food standards that really govern what we provide to our children. And in particular, we are really aiming from a health perspective to serve less red meat and, where possible, less dairy. And make no mistake, that doesn't mean we're not serving red meat and dairy. It means we're serving less by intention. And we really, at the same time, really are mindful of how much food tastes better when kids can identify what they're eating. We're really supporting minimally processed, whole food, plant-based proteins. And really recognizing that our culinary staff that prepares those meals,  we're asking them to do something different, to not just do the same recipes that, for many of them, they've been preparing for decades. And I don't know about you, but when I have to do something that somebody tells me to do, if I understand why I'm asked to do it, I'm more likely to do it. So we've taken a lot of time to be able to tell our food service staff this isn't just because I said so. This isn't just because our mayor said so. This is because we know that for many of our students, these are the only meals that they get. And we need to make sure that they are healthy and delicious. And you have an opportunity to be able to help make those meals
delicious. So by not just teaching knife skills and introducing different flavours and spices, we bring in initially a chef's council of chefs from across the city, notable chefs, and created chef's ambassadors across all of the different school districts. So we have 32 different districts that represent the 1,600 schools in our city. And each of them now is sort of the champion for this work. And so we now are upwards of almost 50 recipes, plant-based recipes in many instances. But then anything that we menu on our schools is approved. So we don't put anything on the menu that hasn't been taste tested in different schools and amongst different populations. So this is about teaching kids a lot about where food is coming from and then putting it on the menu and really highlighting it. But the science shows that kids need exposures of sometimes 15 times or more to a different or new item to be able to develop a preference for it. So, especially in our school system, choice is essential. And we really try and promote the better, healthier option for kids to choose that. But ultimately, it's our job to develop not just the palates, but the minds of these students to be able to make that choice on their own.    
 

Jessica: So when we were in Lyon, another topic that came up was not just what kids are tasting at the table, but also that whole food education journey. If you can tell us a little bit more about that and what's happening in New York there.    
 

Kate: Sure. We believe in New York that schools should really represent a culture of wellness from the moment you step into the school, that you should be supported with education, clearly, but also the environment in which you can be a very healthful student. Not only is this important for academic performance, but certainly for making sure that we're setting our kids up for success later on in life. So while the meals in our cafeteria are delicious and healthful and we know that kids enjoy them, we're missing the mark if we don't address education as well. And so our intention is taking the experience out of the cafeteria by ensuring that kids are learning about food, food systems, and nutrition, and marketing in the classroom. And so what we've done is create a food education roadmap that connects the food education experience from what kids are served in the classroom to age-appropriate nutrition standards across the spectrum of learning. So if a kid is learning in their science class about how the growing system and how things are grown, that can help address a food education standard as well. So, really trying to leverage the efficiency of what kids are already learning, but also finding those things that they aren't and ensuring that we provide opportunities in after-school programs or through teacher engagement to be able to ensure that kids know not just about what food selections they should be making or not, but how food is grown, the working conditions of food workers, and even and especially in the United States, the really challenging environment around food marketing that is impacting a lot of kids on social media, in other forms of media to really direct them to unhealthy choices. I think it's really important also because kids then take that message home, that experience home, and talk to their parents about it. When families actually have the ability to do their own grocery shopping, we know that they were influencing those decisions. And so ultimately, this is creating a sort of culture of change and culture of health around food. And that's really, you know, what this is about. So our food education roadmap is an effort to really help our teachers understand a new and different way of teaching, as well as ensuring that we are really, again, supporting that whole food environment for kids to thrive.    
 

Jessica: So to wrap up, one last question. What can other cities do to follow in New York's footsteps?    
 

Kate: As I mentioned, the beauty of food is that It can take many different forms, right? And I mean that literally and figuratively. Our job is as food experts and those passionate about food is to help people see their work through food policy glasses. And so, again, when you're asking someone to do something additional, we're not giving them additional time in their day, but we can always find ways for them to amplify what they're doing, again, through food. No one has enough people working on food policy, right? But if we can figure out how to maximize city government staff to be an army of food policy advisors and implementers, that's a great opportunity. So it's really, you know, in some ways, it's quite simple. It's relationships. It's, we're all working to make, in my case, New Yorkers lead their best lives. And that's through food. And we can all do that in a way that is mutually supportive of the goals of our cities. 

Food has the superpower to unite all people around a shared experience.