Food Bank For New York City

Food Bank For New York City aims to provide New Yorkers with the food and resources they need today to build a better tomorrow. As New York City’s primary distributor of emergency food, Food Bank secures, transports, and distributes resources to 925 partners across the five boroughs, which includes emergency and community food programs, disaster food partners, and campus pantries in K-12 schools and colleges. At a time when 91 percent of these member agencies are reporting an increase of first-time visitors, we aim to support our network with the food and resources their clients desperately need.

It’s worth noting, too, that many of our local soup kitchens and food pantries are still unable to re-open because of COVID. More than one in nine (or 11 percent) of our member agencies remain closed, which means certain communities no longer have ready access to free and nutritious food. In those neighborhoods, many families are struggling with food insecurity, and yet the support network they’ve come to depend upon is not operating at full strength. That’s a big reason why we identified our contingent of 22 Community Response Partners, so that we could establish a solid presence in each and every borough. Our Mobile Pantry Program is also working to fill the access gaps that COVID has left behind.

To better support our ever-growing network of food pantries, soup kitchens, and schools, fighting hunger at the frontlines, we recently made a $14 million investment directly into our member network. Representing one of the largest investments in Food Bank’s 37-year history, we are aiming to address key areas of need through a four-pillar strategy of food grants, operational and capacity grants, healthcare partnerships, and a Mobile Pantry Program.

Food Grants – As the first pillar of our member investment strategy, we’re increasing both the quantity and frequency of our food deliveries, focusing on communities hit hardest by the pandemic. This includes areas like the Bronx, where a recent report found that one in 10 residents had visited a food pantry or soup kitchen due to COVID.

Operational and Capacity grants – Along with providing our members with more food, we’re also helping to provide the operational means to get that food to their communities. La Jornada food pantry in Queens, for example, was awarded a capacity grant to buy a forklift to increase distribution efficiency.

Healthcare Partnerships – Healthcare providers are often the first to identify the signs of food insecurity and its link to costly, and preventable chronic conditions like obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. So, we’re investing in Food Bank’s long-standing relationships with local hospitals by bringing them into our member network.

Mobile Pantry Program – As discussed earlier, we’re also pouring money and resources into our new Mobile Pantry Program, which will visit different sites each week to provide meals and shelf-stable goods to people where they live.

We’re also innovating new ways to leverage technology to help address ongoing safety concerns around social distancing. This includes creating a new “contact-free” client intake and registration solution for all our member agencies engaged in direct service, including food distributions. Food Bank will provide barcode scanners, software and training for sites to be able to give every registered client an ID card with a unique barcode. The scanners will allow them to check-in clients from a safe distance, minimizing contact between staff, clients, and other surfaces.

For decades, Food Bank’s multi-pronged approach has included supporting low-income families to afford more food and other necessities. Our strategy includes equipping our 925 member agencies to better address the critical needs of those who rely upon them on an ongoing basis. Going forward, we are focusing a wealth of resources, including training, capacity grants, technology, and technical assistance, to equip hundreds of emergency food providers across the city to be better able to move the most vulnerable residents closer to food security and financial stability.

As the city’s largest hunger relief organization, we’re used to providing millions of meals a year to our neighbors in need. But the challenges of this pandemic have shown us that our capacity to give extends far beyond providing meals and shelf-stable goods to our clients, though those obviously remain important to us and our mission to fight hunger.

To address the growing and nuanced needs of this pandemic, we deployed a multi-faceted emergency response to safely distribute food and other resources more quickly than ever before by working closely with our partners in the public, private, and non-profit spheres. Since the start of our response, we’ve provided over 100 million free meals to our neighbors across the five boroughs. In January 2021 alone, we distributed nearly 6 million meals, marking a 36 percent increase compared to last January’s distribution. We’ve also collaborated with other hunger relief organizations in the city that aren’t in our member network; in fact, nearly 7 million meals have been provided in partnership with organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), Women in Need (WIN), Administration of Children Services (ACS), Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), and New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

In addition to food distributions, we’ve also worked to take our mission online through workshops on nutrition education and financial empowerment. In the past year, we’ve provided virtual nutrition education to SNAP-eligible populations through our SNAP-Ed nutrition education programs, which normally serve over 12,000 K-5 students across the city. We’ve also modified our community-based direct nutrition education workshops to operate virtually as well as outdoors. So far, we’ve conducted 48 in-person, socially distanced workshops and 48 virtual workshops with over 1,000 participants. As of this writing, we’ve held 44 virtual workshops on financial empowerment, which have been attended by well over 800 individuals. And as always, we’re offering free tax filing to the working poor to ensure that they receive their maximum refunds without having to worry about tax prep fees.