Big Duck Studio, Inc.

Through its Building Healthy Communities priority area, NYHealth has supported neighborhood-level approaches to improve access to healthy, affordable food and to activate spaces to encourage more physical activity.

To sustain the progress that has been made in these communities, it is important that neighborhood grantees have the tools and capacity they need to maintain and expand their initiatives and goals. Grantees have expressed a particular need for support in advocating for local policy change and solutions and effectively communicating their wins, goals, needs, and value. Strengthening these efforts will help ensure the long-term sustainability of the achievements and place-based work in each neighborhood. In 2021, NYHealth awarded Big Duck Studio a grant to provide Project EATS with communications support to advance its mission to improve healthy food access in low-income neighborhoods.

Under this grant, Big Duck Studio partnered with Project EATS to expand support for its program of urban farms and mobile farm stands that helped to increase access to and affordability and consumption of healthy foods in Brownsville, Brooklyn and other communities. Big Duck Studio developed a digital communications plan to increase community involvement and attract new donors in support of Project EATS’ programs, particularly in response to community nutrition assistance and needs during COVID-19. It helped Project EATS better connect with previous donors and identified ways to engage with new donors and expand its network. It partnered with Project EATS to develop communications goals, priorities, and strategies for a digital fundraising campaign to raise more support for its work to improve healthy food access and reduce health inequities in working class and low-income neighborhoods.