Food Bank For New York City provides food and other resources to a network of over 800 food pantries, campus pantries, soup kitchens, and healthcare partners across the five boroughs. To facilitate learning, dialogue, problem-solving, and creative brainstorming within our network, we regularly host “Borough Chats,” which bring together Food Bank Members of the same borough to talk about issues impacting their communities.
Follow us to Woodside, Queens, to the picturesque church, La Jornada, a long-standing Food Bank member, where our recent borough chat took place. The event brought together 26 staff and volunteers from over 20 food pantries and soup kitchen programs, providing a valuable platform to network, learn, and connect on shared experiences.
Our Borough Chats exemplify Food Bank's commitment to empowering our member agencies by facilitating meaningful dialogue and collaboration. By bringing together key stakeholders to discuss critical issues, we aim to inspire action and improve client experiences to empower New Yorkers achieve food security for good.
The Queens Borough Chat kicked off with an insightful panel discussion featuring Swami Das from The River Fund New York, Virginia Tucker from One Way Church of Christ Food Pantry, and Food Bank staff member Samantha Burgos. The panelists shared their expertise on topics such as improving neighborhood interactions during distributions, the importance of being a client choice program, and best practices for utilizing volunteers.
To address a critical issue for our Queens members, how to best serve New York's newly arrived neighbors seeking asylum, Molly Schaeffer from the NYC Mayor's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations provided an overview of the city's latest support initiatives. Food Bank staff member Maria Meyer then offered important health strategies Queens members could infuse into their programming. The event concluded with insights from Andre Mack of Bank of America, who shared his expertise on achieving outstanding client engagement. Borough-by-borough, Food Bank is helping our members to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good.
We want to extend a special thank you to our host, La Jornada, for generously hosting the event and to our participants for making this special day possible.
Spotlight on La Jornada
La Jornada is a shining example of the incredible work our member agencies do every day. Serving approximately 25,000 people each month in some of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in New York City – Woodside, Jackson Heights, and Elmhurst – La Jornada operates a robust food pantry and mobile pantry program. But its support doesn't stop there. La Jornada also offers migration assistance, health services, and educational programs covering ESL, literacy, nutrition, and personal finance, demonstrating a holistic approach to empowering its community.
Visit foodbanknyc.org to learn more about our mission to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good.