Williamsburg Food Pantry is a Volunteer-Powered Respite

Volunteer Profile: Christopher Larson Christopher Larson has elevated Food Bank's mission across our virtual programs – including writing letters of hope to our clients through our Dear New York Program and amplifying food resources online as a Food Bank Social Media Ambassador. Why is Food Bank’s mission important to you? "Food Bank's mission to end food insecurity in NYC is important to me because, as a registered nurse, I've witnessed the negative health effects that occur due to not having dependable access to nutritious food. The number of people who face food insecurity is alarming, as no one should go hungry." What was your most memorable moment while serving with Food Bank? "I loved personally dropping off letters at Food Bank's Community Kitchen & Pantry in Harlem and seeing people engage with my posts as a Social Media Ambassador. Knowing that one of the letters I wrote might cheer someone up, or one of my posts might connect someone in need to the right resources, makes me happy!" Tell us about a meal that is special to you and your family. "Paella is very special to me and my family. It is the most popular dish in Spain and the ingredients can easily be modified for endless variety! Mi mamá taught me to cook authentic paella and we make it together every time I visit my family in Spain." Who inspires you to serve? "The LGBTQ+ community inspires me to serve – help is always given and equality and inclusion are shown to everyone regardless of background, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Reducing hunger for LGBTQ+ and all New Yorkers is reason enough to serve my community!"

Food Bank For New York City’s 2nd annual 5-Borough Challenge is in full swing! From now until December 31, New Yorkers from Staten Island up to the Bronx are encouraged to take to social media to challenge their friends, family, and followers to donate to Food Bank in support of our mission to feed ALL New Yorkers. To learn more about the campaign, we spoke to Janis Robinson, VP of Institutions and Partnerships at Food Bank (pictured below). She provided insight into the origin of the challenge and why its message of unity and hometown pride is so timely in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. What inspired the creation of the 5-Borough Challenge? We know that New Yorkers love a good competition, especially one between the boroughs. So, this was really an opportunity to tap into that energy in service of a great cause. Plus, we have fantastic relationships with NYC-based celebrities and influencers across the five boroughs who are always down to raise support and awareness for our neighbors in need. What is the goal of the 5-Borough Challenge? The goal for each borough is to raise $20,000, which will then be fully matched by our longtime partner and friend Bank of America for a grand total of $200,000. These critical funds will help us reach our overall goal of providing 20 million meals to New Yorkers in need this holiday season. While the financial goal is certainly important, it’s not the only goal of this campaign. We want to ignite energy among the boroughs, get folks excited about fighting hunger for ALL New Yorkers. It doesn’t matter what neighborhood you live in – you can walk outside your door right now and see that there is still such a need for food in NYC. Taking a moment to think about that during the holidays is crucial. Why is it so important for New Yorkers to come together now in this way? When you look around NYC, you can feel the impacts of COVID-19 everywhere. So many of our office buildings are still empty. There are foreclosures happening, people still losing their jobs. And yet, these very same people still need to pay rent and utilities. So many of our neighbors still need support to get food on the table for themselves and their families. What makes the 5-Borough Challenge unique? In a place like NYC, in these boroughs, there’s so much density, so much in the way of people. Harnessing the power of those people, of those New Yorkers, is really what this challenge is all about, and what makes it so unique. There’s nowhere else in the world with a borough system like ours, and we take an immense amount of pride in that. One thing that we've seen time and time again at Food Bank is how New Yorkers always come together to support their own. It’s a truly powerful thing. How can people extend their giving beyond the holiday season? We want people to understand that hunger doesn’t just exist during the holiday season. It’s not a Thanksgiving event or a Christmas event... it’s year-round. There are so many opportunities to provide support throughout the year. Visit our website and look at all of the different programs we have going on. See how you can support our Mobile Pantry Program. Figure out when a pop-up food distribution is happening in your neighborhood. Stay connected to the Food Bank For New York City and we will always make sure to let you know how you can help. Ready to get involved? Head on over to our 5-Borough Challenge hub, where you can donate directly to the campaign and find social media assets to drum up excitement on your channels. And make sure to follow all the #5BoroughChallenge fun on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Byline: Janis Robinson and Margaret Harrell Every year, Veterans Day gives us the chance to honor the millions who have served in the United States Armed Forces. But it also offers us an opportunity to shine a light on the pervasive and largely hidden issues of poverty and food insecurity within veteran communities across the country. Even before the onset of COVID-19, the veteran poverty rate in New York City was 56 percent higher than the New York State average and 79 percent higher than the national average – rates that have only increased throughout the pandemic. According to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 1.5 million veterans are living in poverty. Of these veterans, 11.1 percent were described as food insecure and an additional 5.3 percent were described as living in households with very low food security. These rates were highest for veterans of color, veterans who are disabled, female veterans, and veterans experiencing serious mental health issues; in fact, one analysis found that veterans in this latter group faced food insecurity at rates ten times higher than their peers. Though it’s difficult to discern a precise “why” behind these findings, we can extrapolate a few root causes common to other historically marginalized groups, including low household incomes, racial- and gender-based discrimination, homelessness, and difficulty accessing government assistance. In the above analysis, for example, researchers discovered that less than one-third of food insecure veterans were receiving aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), even when they qualified for the benefit. This generally occurs when individuals don’t know about the program, don’t understand how it works, or feel shame about participating in it. Consistent in all of this is a need for more meaningful data. That way, organizations like ours will be better positioned to allocate resources and understand the real needs of our veteran neighbors. But we can’t just sit around waiting for data – we must do everything in our power to fight this issue as it exists right now. That’s why Food Bank is proud to partner with organizations like the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which provide invaluable grants to agencies in our extensive member network to innovate new solutions to fight hunger for the veteran New Yorkers they serve. One such group is Part of the Solution (POTS), a Food Bank partner agency in the Bronx that not only distributes food, but provides legal aid, case management, and free mental health services to clients like John, a Vietnam War vet forced to end his service because of severe injuries. “People weren’t accepting us too much back then… they didn’t welcome us with open arms,” John explains of his return to the States. “Jobs were on and off, my disability started catching up to me… It was a struggle, a real big struggle.” Thankfully, he found his way to POTS in the early 1980s. Even when he became a single parent to his two sons, John (pictured below) says he’s always been able to rely on the organization for the food he needs to take care of himself and his family. “With friends like this you can never lose. You’ll always be ahead.” For organizations like the Food Bank For New York City to continue the work of supporting veterans like John, they need support of their own. Not only so they can provide food to veteran-servicing agencies across the city, but so that they can empower these groups to develop new ways of meeting the diverse needs of their veteran clients. The fight against food insecurity in these communities necessitates a nuanced approach, pairing food assistance with essential mental health services, housing aid, and financial empowerment resources. Otherwise, hunger will only persist, when it absolutely must end. Janis Robinson is the Vice President of Institutions & Partnerships at the Food Bank For New York City and Margaret Harrell is the Chief Program Officer at the Bob Woodruff Foundation.