ProgramsNYU Wagner Capstone: Social Impact, Innovation & Investment (Fall 23'-Spring 24') ProjectsTeens for Food Justice Regional Expansion Strategy

Project Title: Teens for Food Justice Regional Expansion Strategy

Teens for Food Justice

Details
Project Title Teens for Food Justice Regional Expansion Strategy
Project Topics Growth Strategy Legal, Regulatory, Compliance
Skills & Expertise
Project Synopsis: Challenge/Opportunity
Teens for Food Justice (TFFJ) is at a critical point in its organizational growth and needs strategic recommendations for how to expand our footprint both intentionally and responsibly. Our work—which sits at the intersection of food access, health, education, and advocacy—is only growing in relevance and urgency as the nation faces the true cost of our food system’s inequities, which have become more apparent and increased exponentially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Thanks to increasing demand for our program both within and outside of NYC, we are positioned to impact vastly more students in communities across the country, with a goal of implementing the TFFJ program in three additional regions within the next 10 years. Based on what we've learned thus far, we believe that regional future partnerships must begin at the school district level. 

To meet this demand, TFFJ must:
  • Combine the most salient recommendations from a prior (2019-20) strategic planning engagement with lessons learned from interim partnership engagement to devise a process for determining the three most feasible and aligned prospective school district partners across the U.S.
  • Significantly expand our internal capacity in the areas of strategic planning, fundraising, and program oversight to ensure a healthy, robust expansion of our program and create the optimal fiscal and operational conditions for programmatic success.
  • Compile a sound financial plan to ensure fiscal growth and sustainability for the program and the organization. 
Project Synopsis: Activities/Actions Required
Comprehensive analyses of:
  • The TFFJ program model's current strengths and dependencies 
  • TFFJ's current organizational budget and future budget projections 
  • The key fiscal and operational contributions a school district must be able to offer in order to be considered an aligned prospective partner for TFFJ
Project Synopsis: Expected Results
TFFJ has been floating the idea of selecting future school district partners using a national RFP process. 
  • If the Capstone team believes this is a recommendable approach, we would consider this project a success if it resulted in recommendations for the RFP's content as well as an outline for a scoring rubric. 
  • If the Capstone team finds that this is not a recommendable approach, we would consider this project a success if it resulted in an alternative process recommendation for partner selection, along with recommendations for accompanying process tools/rubrics.

Project Timeline

Touchpoints & Assignments Date Type

Program Kickoff

 Aug 02 2024 America/Asuncion (UTC-04:00) Event

Program Managers

Name Organization
Elizabeth Larsen New York University (NYU)

Teams

Team Name  Project Name  Team Members 
No Teams Available