Tutu Badaru is the Assistant Director for Food Access Initiatives and Partnerships at GrowNYC, where she is responsible for the program management, strategy, and development of GrowNYC’s Food Access Initiatives and program partnerships, which enhance food access throughout New York City. Eight years ago, she moved from Uganda to New York City to pursue a graduate degree in Clinical Nutrition. Halfway through the program, she realized that effective nutrition programs would require a multipronged approach on policy, clinical, and community or grassroots levels. She decided to focus on finding work within the community nutrition field in order to diversify my professional experience, which, at that point, had been solely in clinical settings.
She has always been fascinated by the communal aspect of food and its effect on our bodies and the environment. Her fascination with food turned into a desire to collaborate with people and communities in order to help them navigate the complicated and ever-changing field of nutrition. Working at GrowNYC as the Greenmarket Youth Engagement Coordinator allowed me to combine my personal and professional interests in agriculture and food policy. In addition to my part-time education role, at the time, she also worked as a Market Manager during the slower winter seasons. During the pandemic redeployment, she had the opportunity to work at FFB and Farmstand sites.
Besides her previous roles at GrowNYC, she has also served in external leadership roles, including Chair for the Steering and Envisioning Committee for the New York City Nutrition Education Network (NYCNEN) 2019-2022 and more recently as the 2022-2023 board chair for Farm School New York City.