Current News
Allison DeHonney of Buffalo Go Green wins a C-Level Award from Buffalo Business First
Oct.. 2024
BUFFALO, N.Y. She left a career in insurance account management six years ago to turn six empty East Side lots into an urban wellness center. She transformed them into the region’s first produce prescription program, linking up with the likes of Highmark Western and Northeastern New York and Kaleida Health to educate and nourish the community. DeHonney turned a $30,000 seed into a nearly $2 million business. She’s opened a second location with five greenhouses and a community building. She also acquired an additional site for holistic wellness that hosts yoga, nutrition lessons and other wellrounded functions.
The next immediate goal is to provide four tons of fresh food per year. Along with that, she’s working to reverse food-land relationships in the city, collaborating on a journal article on the subject as well as the Erie County Food Policy Council. DeHonney’s work to improve the whole person extends outside Western New York. She directs the DEI council for the Northeast Regional Food Business Centers, part of a 12- state project for the USDA.
Her community work includes the Colored Musicians Club.
Allison DeHonney
Executive director, Buffalo Go Green
Founded company: 2014
College: B.A., MBA, Medaille University
Children: Richard, Jordan
Community roles: Erie County Soil and Water Board; Colored Musicians Club
Proudest professional moment: Starting my own business and organization
Best advice you ever received: Never confuse effort with results.
Secret talent: Facilitating comradery and team building while running a successful business and simultaneously serving the needs of my community.
Tips to recruit and retain staff: It is important to try to hire people who align with the organization’s culture. If staff is treated with respect and dignity, they will likely treat colleagues, clients, and customers the same.
If you had a magic wand, what would you change in Western New York: The first thing I would change is the imaginary lines of North, South, East and West. While these are just geographic terms in Buffalo, they mean much more than just geography; there is racial and economic stigmatism associated with each of these areas of the city. Once that was done, no child would go to be hungry once my wand was waved!
One thing you want to accomplish in next five years: Completing the renovation of our new Holistic Wellness and Education Campus
One-word self-description: Kind
Buffalo Bills Foundation teams up with Buffalo Go Green to present new Holistic Wellness and Agricultural Education Campus
MAY 20, 2024
On May 20, the Bills Foundation announced a donation of $571,600 to support Buffalo Go Green’s new Holistic Wellness and Agricultural Education Campus. This campus is Buffalo Go Green’s third location on the East Side and the City’s first Holistic Wellness and Agricultural Education Campus. The Campus will beautify the neighborhood, offer nutrition education classes, an indoor hydroponic farm with an observation area, with holistic and sustainable practices and community-friendly events for all ages.
new indoor food production system
A new indoor food production system, supported by NYPA, is now complete. The #hydroponic system will help advance #urbanfarming technology and provide nutritional produce to communities in and near #Buffalo.
The facility will grow herbs and vegetables year-round in an indoor environment, with no soil, and is designed to help understand food production’s impact on #NewYork’s power grid, electricity usage and carbon emissions.
Buffalo Go Green, Inc. | Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) | Buffalo Center for Health Equity
Urban Farm Day
AUGUST 28, 2023
We so enjoyed having folks visit our newest greenhouse farm during Urban Farm Day with Dr. Samina Raja and the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab from UB providing interactive workshops. Thank you to all who attended and, of course, Dr. Raja and the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab!
a visit from the President of the American Farm Bureau Federation
AUGUST 31, 2023
Zippy Duvall, who was also joined by local and state Farm Bureau representatives, Cornell Cooperative Extension, the Buffalo Food Equity Network, Erie County, and members of the Greater Buffalo Urban Growers (BGUG). We provided a presentation on the importance of urban farming, food and land access, and the importance of having all voices at the table when it comes to farm policy.
‘Everybody’s loving this’: Healthy Corner Store Initiative grows in EastBuffalo
AUGUST 29, 2023
Lucky Majid owns a business and lives in the same East Side community wherehe grew up.
“I love this neighborhood,” he said. “I go out with customers. We play gamestogether. They come to my house. We went to school together.”
This might come as a surprise if all you know about Majid is that he is a Yemeni-American who operates a convenience store in one of the region’s poorestneighborhoods.
Like his father before him, he runs the store at Sycamore and Herman streets in theBroadway-Fillmore District. He started a Cricket Wireless franchise inside the shopwhile in his late teens, renamed the place Lucky’s Food Mart after he took ownership,and last year leased part of the space for a smoothie shop.
Majid, 40, has long wanted to bring healthier foods and more hope into aneighborhood that for decades has had too little of both. But with limited meanshimself, he has felt largely abandoned by those from outside East Buffalo with goodintentions to help lift this part of the city – but maybe not much insight.
This means more access’:
Buffalo Go Green, Highmark unveil mobile food market
AUGUST 29, 2023
The Buffalo Center for Health Equity was set up about three years ago, seekingto eliminate race-based health disparities in Western New York.
That difficult task got a boost Friday, when Highmark Western and NortheasternNew York announced it was awarding a $1.5 million grant to the center. The healthplan also is providing space within its downtown Buffalo headquarters so the centercan relocate and expand its offices.
This means more access’:
Buffalo Go Green, Highmark unveilmobile food market
APRIL 29, 2023
Dubbed the Highmark Mobile Market, the unit operated by Buffalo Go Green willsupport a fruits and vegetables prescription program that provides access to healthyfood for tens of thousands of people in Buffalo.
The mobile unit, an initiative that received a $370,000 Blue Fund grant fromHighmark Western and Northeastern New York in December 2021, aims to serve the12% of Buffalo residents considered food insecure by meeting them where they are.
