Cityzens Giving Emergency Food - New York

Our Mission and Programs

New York Common Pantry (NYCP) reduces hunger and promotes dignity, health and self-sufficiency. Since 1980, we have made it our mission to show up for hungry New Yorkers in need. We first opened as Yorkville Common Pantry, a small but mighty effort of volunteers serving 30 families. Since those early days, New York Common Pantry has grown by leaps and bounds, becoming one of the largest food aid providers in New York City. From our Choice Pantry locations in East Harlem and the Bronx, to our Mobile Pantry sites throughout New York City, we take a whole-person approach to tackling food insecurity. NYCP’s holistic methods mean that while we provide fresh and nutritious food packages to our participants, we view food assistance as just the first step in the process of alleviating food insecurity. Case management services help participants gain access to benefits that lessen their financial burdens, making it easier for our guests to regularly access and cook fresh, nutritious food. Our nutrition education program focuses on healthy eating habits, as well as instruction in preparing nourishing and delicious meals from the ingredients in participants’ pantry packages.

Our Choice Pantries provide nutritionally balanced and culturally relevant grocery packages to thousands of families in East Harlem and the Bronx, providing over 3.4 million meals in FY23. Our "choice" model allows Pantry members to order their groceries online or on-site using touch screen tablets. Mobile Pantry brings the same fresh, healthy food available at our brick-and-mortar pantries to communities throughout New York City - we work with over 58  community partner sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens and in FY23, provided 1.9 million meals. NYCP’s Hot Meals program is often our first contact with homeless and hungry New Yorkers, and serves healthy, freshly prepared meals 5 days per week and “brown bag” lunches on the weekends. Hot Meals provided over 75,000 meals in FY23. Project Dignity is a bridge back to well-being for our homeless guests - offering onsite showers, mail services, haircuts, laundry and connects them with services to help them find housing, job training, and medical care. Help 365 and Help 365 Mobile enroll people into our Choice Pantry program and provide case management services, helping people access assistance such as SSI benefits (Supplemental Security Income) and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) - last fiscal year, our case managers helped access over $7.1 million dollars in resources. Live Healthy! is NYCP’s nutrition education program, helping participants build the food preparation and shopping skills necessary to eat healthily on a budget. We collaborate with clinical partners to reach food insecure New Yorkers at high risk for diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses related to a poor diet. In FY23, Live Healthy! served nearly 4,000 individuals, an increase of 72% from FY22. Our Nourish program serves low-income seniors ages 60 and older in their own communities, providing supplemental grocery packages at over 130 sites and serving approximately 17,000 seniors each month. In the past fiscal year, NYCP has focused on rebuilding our Food Rescue program, collaborating with new partners across New York City to rescue nutritious food that would otherwise end up in landfills. We have added five new corporate donors in FY23 and established relationships with several Hunts Point Market vendors to more effectively pick up and receive produce donations.

Our dedicated volunteers and community partnerships are a huge part of what makes this work possible. Volunteers provide vital support for our Choice Pantry, Mobile Pantry, Hot Meals, and Live Healthy! teams by packing groceries, preparing and plating meals, and packing Farm Share produce. Our community partners help us make lasting connections with food insecure New Yorkers in diverse communities. These partners, which include social service agencies, hospitals, settlement houses, schools, community centers, and senior and veteran centers, help remove the stigma of receiving food assistance by connecting us directly with guests who need our help. We wouldn’t be able to make this impact without the invaluable support our volunteers and community partners give us.

A Milestone Year

FY23 has been a year of incredible growth for New York Common Pantry. Although we may have transitioned back to normal operations, there is no question that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to impact the communities we serve. Whether due to rising inflation, stagnant wages, or medical issues, many people are struggling to simply get by. We have risen to meet this increased need, providing a record 10.1 million meals in FY23. The number of individuals we’ve served this past year has increased by over 30% since FY22, bringing over 104,000 New Yorkers in need to our doors.

This past year saw the grand opening of our new Food Storage and Distribution Hub (The Hub). The Hub is a 23,500 square foot facility in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx that has allowed us to consolidate our operations and store more food than ever before. The Hub provides significantly more space for food collection and storage so that we can double the amount of food we purchase and can order in bulk for all of our programs, including our Choice Pantry locations and Mobile Pantry.  For the first time in almost five years, we have decreased the average per meal cost across our Pantries to $1.02 per meal, meaning that we can make the food we have go further and impact more New Yorkers than ever before.

NYCP also opened our new service site for our Nourish program at 788 Southern Boulevard, which is located in the Longwood neighborhood of the Bronx. At this ADA-compliant, state-of-the-art facility, low-income seniors can receive supplemental food packages full of nutritionally balanced, shelf-stable goods. Live Healthy! programming also takes place at 788 Southern Boulevard, bringing behaviorally-focused nutrition education directly into the community.

Most recently, we have stepped up to address the influx of migrant families arriving in the New York City area. From June 2023 through August 2023, we provided food to 1,222 migrant households, with 54% of new members seeking services at NYCP being migrants. This great need has necessitated that we continue innovating to ensure we can adequately provide for the communities we serve.

As we continue to find new ways to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse communities of participants, New York Common Pantry remains committed to our mission of reducing hunger and promoting dignity, health and self-sufficiency through our whole-person food, case management, and nutrition education programs. Our level of impact would not be possible without the generosity and hard work of our donors, volunteers, and community partners. Thank you for looking out for your communities.

Links:

• New York Common Pantry Website

Our Mission and Programs

New York Common Pantry (NYCP) reduces hunger and promotes dignity, health and self-sufficiency. Since opening in 1980 as Yorkville Common Pantry, a volunteer organization assisting 30 families, NYCP has grown into one of the largest food aid providers in New York City, providing over 9 million meals in FY22. NYCP programs are offered at our locations in East Harlem and the Bronx, and throughout New York City by way of our Mobile Pantry Program. We look at food assistance as only the first step to help alleviate food insecurity - case management services help our guests access much needed benefits, while our nutrition education program offers information on healthy eating habits and provides instruction in preparing the fresh, healthy food we serve. 

Our Choice Pantries provide nutritionally balanced grocery packages to thousands of families in East Harlem and the Bronx, providing over 2.8 million meals in FY22. Our choice model allows Pantry members to order their groceries online or on-site using touch screen tablets. Mobile Pantry brings the same fresh, healthy food available at our brick-and-mortar pantries to communities throughout New York City - we work with over 40 community partner sites in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens and in FY22, provided over 2 million meals. NYCP’s Hot Meals program is often our first contact with homeless and hungry New Yorkers, and serves healthy, freshly prepared meals 5 days per week and “brown bag” lunches on the weekends. Hot Meals provided over 50,000 meals in FY22. Project Dignity is a bridge back to well-being for our homeless guests - offering onsite showers, mail services, haircuts, laundry and connects them with services to help them find housing, job training, and medical care. Help 365 and Help 365 Mobile enroll people into our Choice Pantry program and provide case management services, helping people access assistance such as SSI benefits and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) - last fiscal year, our case managers helped access over $6 million dollars in resources. Live Healthy! is NYCP’s nutrition education program - helping participants build the food preparation and shopping skills necessary to eat healthily on a budget. We collaborate with clinical partners to reach food insecure New Yorkers at high risk for diabetes, hypertension and other illnesses related to a poor diet. Farm to Community - a Live Healthy! farm share initiative for low-income participants, increases access to healthy food - distributed over 4,000 pounds of fresh produce in FY22. Our Nourish program serves low-income seniors in their own communities, providing supplemental grocery packages at over 130 sites and serving approximately 17,000 seniors each month. This year, NYCP has focused on rebuilding our Food Rescue program - collaborating with new partners across New York City to rescue nutritious food that would otherwise end up in landfills.

We work in the communities we serve, providing a vital first contact for many families and individuals who need assistance. Community partnerships are central to our mission to reach food insecure New Yorkers and combat any stigma associated with receiving food assistance. We work with social service agencies, hospitals, senior and veteran centers, schools, community centers and settlement houses. Volunteers bring the community into our locations, packing groceries into Pantry packages and assisting the culinary staff in the kitchen. Many of our most engaged board members and generous supporters were originally introduced to the work we do by participating as volunteers.

NYCP food programs help families stretch their budgets, allowing them to reallocate their resources to housing, clothing, health care, and education, We provide not only fresh, healthy food, but a fresh start, a sense of community, and a hope for a brighter future, for thousands of individuals and families every year.

Milestones and Future Plans

While the pandemic continued to impact programs at NYCP during FY22, we have begun to transition back to normal operations. We have been able to restore our choice ordering system, indoor dining and hygiene services over the last year. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have seen the need for our programs continue to grow, even as society goes back to normal.

The majority of NYCP guests are low-income employed, often holding down multiple jobs with schedules that make it difficult to access much-needed services, especially if they have to travel around the city to get help. These people have been disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of the pandemic, the financial uncertainty that has come in its wake, and the end of pandemic enhanced government spending -  the challenges faced by food insecure New Yorkers have continued to grow. 

NYCP opened our new Food Storage and Distribution Hub (The Hub) - a 23,500 square foot warehouse space with dry storage pallet space, refrigeration, freezer, parking, open plan office space, meeting rooms, staff and volunteer break rooms, and changing/locker room. The building provides storage for purchased, rescued, and donated food, as well as accommodations for our Food Rescue, Nourish, and Mobile Pantry Staff.

As NYCP continues to provide food assistance in a larger service area, serving more individuals and families than ever, including many who have never accessed emergency food aid before, we remain committed to our guiding principles, providing respectful and individualized support