BCAGlobal

Puerto Rico’s food system is fragile, and families feel the impact every day. The island imports nearly 87% of its food, leaving communities vulnerable to rising prices, supply chain disruptions, and extreme weather. After Hurricane Maria, food insecurity surged from 30% to 85% percent in just five months, exposing how quickly access to food can disappear.

At BCAGlobal, we believe food is medicine and food sovereignty is essential to community health. In partnership with the USDA, the University of Puerto Rico, and AgroInnova, we are leading a transformative effort to rebuild Puerto Rico’s food system through regenerative farming that restores soil health, improves crop nutrition, reduces waste, and strengthens long term resilience for farmers.

A key part of this work is the creation of Puerto Rico’s first soil and seed hub. This community centered facility will convert food waste into organic compost, restore degraded land using climate smart soil practices, and preserve heirloom seeds through a farmer led seed sharing program. Together, these efforts protect agricultural biodiversity while equipping farmers with the tools they need to grow healthy food for their communities.

Today, we invite you to be part of this solution. Your support helps farmers reclaim their land, heal the soil, and build a resilient food system that can nourish Puerto Rico for generations to come.

Our core program, Mindful Eating for the Beloved Community (MEBC), is a federally recognized culinary medicine and nutrition literacy initiative (NIH/National Library of Medicine) that builds lasting health and wellness from the ground up. MEBC integrates chef-led cooking workshops, evidence-based mindful eating curriculum, and peer-supported learning to drive meaningful, lasting dietary behavior change in communities where food deserts, chronic disease, and food insecurity intersect.

BCAGlobal launched the MEBC New York pilot at Bronx River Houses, a NYCHA development in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx, where 39% of residents face food insecurity and diet-related chronic disease rates rank among the highest in New York State.

In March 2026, we hosted our first community event, a Nutrition Fair in partnership with Gotham Food Pantry. BCAGlobal President, Chef Alex Askew, and a culinary team prepared nutritious, pantry-sourced meals for seniors and residents, some of whom tasted certain vegetables for the first time. The response confirmed both the community need and the power of the MEBC model in the NYCHA environment.

Building on that proof of concept, the full pilot year will deliver six interactive chef-led mindful eating and cooking workshops and one community showcase event, pairing hands-on culinary education with fresh produce distribution through our Gotham Food Pantry partnership. The pilot is designed to directly engage 300 residents, with potential reach across the broader Bronx River Houses population of over 4,000 individuals. Learning outcomes include practical cooking skills, nutritional literacy, and the confidence to make lasting behavioral changes.

This pilot anchors a four-year plan to expand MEBC to eight NYCHA sites across three boroughs: the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, serving 5,000+ participants directly. A core feature of the model is the Community Health Ambassador Program, which trains local residents as peer health educators who sustain programming between formal sessions and ensure the program's impact continues long after the grant cycle ends. By Year 4, BCAGlobal aims to have 60+ active Ambassadors across New York City and a published longitudinal impact report supporting permanent NYCHA system-wide adoption.