Liz in the Warehouse

When Sha-Quana was 19, she found herself in a shelter with her baby girl. Times were tough and there were moments when she had only $10 to her name. How would she spend the money? Would she buy a sandwich to feed herself or baby formula for her daughter? You know what choice she made and know that it wasn't a choice at all. Help us get period products, hygiene essentials, and childcare resources to women and girls in need! Sha-Quana Cromwell at Food Bank's Community Kitchen & Food Pantry in Harlem. But things started to turn around when Sha-Quana got a job at Food Bank's Community Kitchen in West Harlem. At first, it was just a paycheck, but it soon turned into something more. Helping to prepare hundreds of meals a day for New Yorkers in need brought a light into Sha-Quana's life. As she says, she's now on a mission. Sha-Quana with Food Bank Culinary Manager Chef Sheri. To learn more about Sha-Quana and see her in action helping to prepare the hundreds of meals we serve a day at our Community Kitchen, click play below: Join us in celebrating the women we serve and those who power our mission every day at this link. Together, we can make progress on a more hopeful, dignified, and equitable future for ALL.

Welcome to The Core, Food Bank For New York City’s new blog! We created this space to dive a little deeper into the subjects, stories, and stakeholders that power our mission. You may be familiar with Food Bank as the city's largest hunger relief organization, but our work actually spans a great deal more. So, The Core will give you insight into how we operate, who we serve, and what kinds of impact we make across all five boroughs of the greatest city in the world. But don’t worry, we won’t just be talking about New York! Anyone and everyone with a hunger for food justice, equity, and advocacy will find a home here where they can learn new ideas and read some fantastic stories. To that end, we’ll have content covering a variety of subjects, including: Activism, Nutrition + Health, Financial Empowerment, and Stories from the Field. So, let’s meet these categories and figure out how we use them here at Food Bank and what they’ll mean to you. Activism Activism is at the heart of everything we do. To fight hunger is to actively fight poverty, which includes standing up for and supporting low-income New Yorkers and their families. This means not only getting them the resources they need to survive and thrive, but also advocating for policies that serve their best interests. So, we’ll be tagging stories that deal with both activism and advocacy in the hunger space. We’ll share information about the fights we’re taking on and the ones waging at the local, state, and federal levels. To get involved with our own efforts, join Food Bank’s action team. Nutrition + Health Another important facet of our work is nutrition, specifically as it relates to education, health and equity. Our nutrition program focuses on teaching folks how to establish and maintain healthy habits on a limited budget, which helps to fight hunger while addressing some of poverty’s key contributing factors – in both the short and long term. So, we’ll be giving you your fill of yummy recipes, nutrition tips, and resources exploring the relationships between food, health, culture, and poverty. Food Assistance In this category, we’ll explore not only the topic of food assistance, but also SNAP benefits and enrollment as well as insights into the various factors that impact emergency food providers across the city. We want to make it as easy as possible for people to find food whenever they need it. To do that, we’ve created an array of tools New Yorkers can use to source free meals and connect with local pantries and soup kitchens for immediate food assistance. If you’re looking for food assistance now, check out our virtual food locator. Financial Empowerment Financial empowerment refers to the sense of security that comes from being in control of one’s finances. Have you ever been down to your last 20 bucks, with more month to go before your next check? Not a great feeling. Well, for many low-income New Yorkers, living in a city as expensive as ours makes that feeling a constant companion. To help the New Yorkers we serve feel more financially empowered, we offer an array of financial resources, from free tax assistance for the working poor to SNAP enrollment and community-based financial coaching. We designed these tools because the truth is, fighting hunger takes more than food. If there’s a change in tax policy that could impact New Yorkers or if we’re leading a free (virtual) workshop on financial management, we’ll make sure to cover it here. We’ll also provide tips anyone can use to become a better budgeter! Research The hunger space is a dynamic one, so it’s important to stay on top of all the latest research to ensure that our messaging is current to our cause and relevant to our communities. Food Bank’s proprietary research has long been industry-leading, but we also rely on reports from other prominent institutions to inform the work we do. To keep you up-to-date, we’ll be sharing all of our latest research findings on this blog. Stories from the Field Here, we’ll feature photographs, interviews, and videos from the field. We work with over 1,000 food pantries, soup kitchens, and schools across the city, and our partners on the ground are the ones who keep this whole operation running. And trust us – they've got plenty of stories to tell! We’ll also share stories from those who experience hunger firsthand so that you can better understand what food insecurity actually looks like. To make sure you never miss a single anecdote, hit subscribe to get fresh updates on The Core as soon as they arrive.

On May 23, Food Bank For New York City organized a rally on the steps of City Hall to oppose possible city budget cuts to the Community Food Connection (CFC), a vital, city-funded program that provides food to over 500 food pantries and soup kitchens across New York City. Mayor Eric Adams has proposed a 50% cut in the budget to the program, which would be catastrophic for New Yorkers who rely on food assistance programs. Food Bank rallied with our friends at United Way of New York City, City Harvest, The Roundtable, NY Common Pantry, Vision Urbana, The Fortune Society, The Broadway Community, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, Project Hospitality, and Los Sures Comida to urge Mayor Adams to restore full funding for food assistance programs. Food Bank President & CEO Leslie Gordon hosted the rally. These organizations were joined by nearly one hundred advocates, direct service providers, and concerned New Yorkers who called on lawmakers to restore adequate funding for services including increased support for food pantries and soup kitchens and expanded access to grocery benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), that assist the nearly 1.2 million New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity. The message to Mayor Adams was loud and clear: stop the budget cuts and fully fund the CFC. More than one hundred advocates joined the rally. Food Bank President & CEO Leslie Gordon kicked off the rally with an impassioned speech. “We find ourselves at a critical juncture today, the mayor’s intention to cut funding for a vital food program by nearly a half closes an unprecedented threat to the fabric of our city’s food assistance network.” According to the NYC True Cost Of Living Report, half of New York City families (even when the adults in the household are working) struggle to afford essentials like healthy food, childcare, healthcare, and housing costs. The CFC provides a lifeline for families who struggle to truly afford the living costs of our city, and is an essential part of the safety net of food assistance programs that keep New Yorkers fed. Mohammad Razvi, founder of Council Of Peoples Organization, the largest halal food pantry in Brooklyn, echoed these thoughts, reminding us that “people say COVID is over, it’s all done... it’s not! Not for our folks, not for our people.” For Razi, the Mayor’s proposed cut to funding for the CFC may reflect a flawed logic that food assistance is less needed after the COVID-19 crisis, when in fact it is needed now more than ever. Mohammad Razvi address the crowd. Jessica, a Bronx resident and mother of three, spoke from the heart about managing a family on limited resources. “If you’ve ever had to stretch a dollar, you’ll understand the essence of what we often call ‘mom math,’ this isn’t your regular sum game, this is about figuring out how to make ends meet when the sums just don’t add up.” “The harsh realities of life in New York City have made [building a strong and healthy family] incredibly difficult," she continued. "Suddenly the very act of caring for my family, something as simple as ensuring there is enough baby formula or diapers feels like an up-the-hill battle. My husband, he’s in a union and recently got a raise, but ironically, that made us ineligible for SNAP and other government related benefits.” She urged the mayor and elected officials to take action: “We need your help and support, families like mine aren’t asking for miracles, we are asking for empathy and action that ensures no family in this great city has to worry about where their next meal is coming from.” Jessica (far left) shared her voice with the crowd. As part of our dynamic approach to empowering every New Yorker to achieve food security for good, Food Bank is committed to advocating for policies and programs that provide the necessary support to those in need. By calling on Mayor Adams and the City Council to secure baseline funding of $60M for the CFC, Food Bank aims to ensure New Yorkers maintain access to healthy food in the face of rising costs. Watch the video below to see our community in action at the rally: To support Food Bank’s work and sign a petition against these proposed budget cuts, click here. More about the Community Food Connection (CFC): The Community Food Connection is a city-funded program that provides food to over 500 food pantries and soup kitchens across New York City, including Food Bank’s West Harlem Community Kitchen and Food Pantry. Sources: “The 2023 True Cost of Living Report: Overlooked and Undercounted: Struggling to Make Ends Meet in New York City 2023” - United Way of New York City