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Lehman College Receives $1.25M Grant to Launch Bronx Food Humanities Program
February 18, 2026
Lehman College will launch a new Bronx Food Humanities Program with support from a $1.25 million grant from the Mellon Foundation, creating a research and leadership pathways in the arts and humanities for students across the Bronx. The three-year multi-institutional initiative offers a humanities-centered program of courses, experiential learning, and paid internships focused on food, culture, and community in the Bronx. Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies Alyshia Gálvez will lead the project.
“We are grateful to receive this Mellon Foundation grant to support the Bronx Food Humanities Program,” said Lehman College President Fernando Delgado. “This initiative, which dovetails with our CUNY Beyond career building initiative, is a natural extension of Lehman College’s commitment to not only educating our students but also preparing them to make a real difference in their communities.”
The new program—which is housed in Lehman’s School of Arts and Humanities and includes Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)—adds a humanities lens to food studies, using storytelling and research to look beyond nutrition and explore how food shapes everyday life in the Bronx. By tracing local food histories and community traditions, students will examine how practices around growing, cooking, and sharing food preserve heritage and shape neighborhoods, preparing a new generation of community leaders, cultural thinkers, and policy makers. The initiative will also create new opportunities for faculty to develop dynamic, food humanities-oriented curricula.
A defining feature of the program is its emphasis on real-world experience and community engagement. Through hands-on work with Bronx-based organizations, including NYBG, students will take part in paid internships designed to build professional skills while connecting classroom learning to applied projects. Courses offered across the three CUNY campuses will also broaden students’ exposure to diverse faculty and perspectives.
“We are delighted that with the Mellon Foundation’s generous support we will be able to deeply explore the abundance of food knowledge and stories in the Bronx and create opportunities for our students in arts and humanities-related fields while strengthening partnerships with other Bronx institutions,” said Gálvez.