Cityzens Giving Emergency Food - New York

In New York City, the pandemic has more than doubled the number of residents in need. Approximately one in four New Yorkers is facing food insecurity, with the highest concentration in the Black and Latino communities served by New York Common Pantry in Manhattan and the Bronx. Since the start of COVID-19 operations on March 16, 2020 to date, NYCP has added over 5,800 new pantry members. The East Harlem Choice Pantry provides an average of 30,000 meals a week, while the smaller Bronx Choice Pantry provides an average of over 16,000.  Across all food programs, NYCP has served over 7,300,000 meals during FY21.  

NYCP staff had to quickly develop solutions to meet the increased need for our services without compromising the health and safety of our guests and staff. By setting up temporary tents and tables on the sidewalk in front of our locations, we created an outdoor walkup service counter. Choice Pantry members pick up pre-bagged groceries during the day, with our “choice” model suspended for now as the additional workforce and personalized service required makes social distancing in the Pantry impossible. Members continue to receive meat and non-meat proteins, fresh vegetables and fruits, grains, and dairy products in each pantry package. Mondays have been added as “senior day” at our East Harlem location; Pantry members over 60 and participants in the Nourish Senior program can collect their groceries in a single socially distanced visit. Hot Meals are distributed “to go” during a socially distanced afternoon outdoor pickup. Help 365 case managers help with SNAP registration and other benefit entitlements during Pantry pickup hours and schedule telephone counseling sessions for those seeking support accessing benefits. Project Dignity provided counseling and mail pickup for half the number of homeless guests they would normally see from March through September 2020, when shower facilities reopened with a sign-up for timed appointments on a limited schedule.  Project Dignity provides supportive housing and public benefits application assistance, psychiatric evaluations for housing and benefits support, medical screenings via Telehealth, and assistance with obtaining birth certificates and state-issued IDs. The availability of hygiene services has increased program participation, though case managers anticipate it will remain lower than normal until we can safely re-open our buildings to guests.The Live Healthy! nutrition education program works with clinical partners to implement Food MD, a food security and wellness initiative for individuals with health issues related to a poor diet, and runs a CSA pilot program currently serving 30 Bronx families.

The biggest change to our programs and services has been the accelerated development of the Mobile Pantry program. Safety concerns caused a number of emergency food providers to close their doors, even as food insecurity rose dramatically in their service areas. According to a June report from the Food Bank of New York City, 38% of the soup kitchens and food pantries in their citywide network closed by mid-April. The poorest neighborhoods in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens lost the most emergency food resources; 73% of the closed providers were in areas where food insecurity was high even before the economic shutdown. NYCP is now working with other social service organizations and community leaders to deliver shelf-stable grocery packages for distribution to their vulnerable populations, reaching New Yorkers in need in their own neighborhoods. The necessity of providing emergency food assistance for people in “food desert” neighborhoods who lack the ability or means to travel to our locations will continue after the current health crisis has passed. In July, NYCP will take delivery of a custom-equipped 22’ Mobile Pantry vehicle, designed to deliver the same Choice Pantry food and social services support our guests receive at our locations. Currently working with Invisible Hands, UberEats, and our own Food Rescue box trucks to drop off grocery packages, the Mobile Pantry Program reaches 27 regular bi-monthly community partner sites, serving over 24,000 duplicated households throughout the city, with a further 26 sites scheduling less frequent food deliveries, averaging 10 special distributions per month.This program has provided over 850,000 meals for over 50,000 duplicated households since it was launched in April 2020.  

We coped with the challenge of increased food costs, an issue that continues into FY21. The supply chain instability created by the pandemic has made food prices higher. Our FY20 budget for purchased food was $678,563. In FY21, we increased that to $900,750, but we spent over $1.2 million on food during the first six months of the fiscal year. We anticipate spending another $1.2 million thru June 30 2021, even working with our generous in-kind partners and the return of food rescue sources as the city reopens. Normally we receive or rescue over 70% of the food for our Choice Pantry, Hot Meals, and Brown Bag programs. In FY20, for the period ending on June 30th, that number was slightly under 50% due to pandemic-related closures. NYCP did not have to suspend services, turn away hungry New Yorkers, or compromise on the quality and freshness of the food we provide, but that meant spending more. We distributed 61% more pounds of food this year than we did last year during the same period. The generous emergency support provided from individuals via GlobalGiving helped us to mitigate the massive rise in food costs. We also hired additional per diem workers to cover the staggered shifts we implemented to meet the increased need for emergency food assistance at the height of the pandemic, while we could not have volunteers in our pantries.

While we have not noticed a significant change in the demographic information provided by our guests during FY21, we have seen an increase in participation of approximately 18% across all food programs, with over 300,100 duplicated individuals accessing NYCP services since we began COVID-19 operations in March 2020.  The majority of our guests are working poor, living in low-income “food deserts” with few healthy affordable meal options. They are more likely to suffer from Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other health issues linked to a poor diet. In FY20, 68% of visitors were Hispanic, 20% Black, 5% Asian and 2% White, with 5% not providing a racial identity. 62% were female, 37% male, and 1% were gender nonconforming; 13% were children under 18, 68% were adults between 18-65, and 19% adults over 65.

Staff are working remotely when possible and in our locations on staggered shifts, wearing masks and practicing social distancing. Until recently, we limited the involvement of our volunteers to keep to a minimum the number of people in the pantry spaces per shift and added additional shifts of per diem workers to keep pantry operations on track. This was a difficult though necessary decision. Volunteers usually make up 70% of the pantry workforce and many of our volunteers have generously given their time to NYCP for years. They are an integral part of the NYCP team, and we missed their energy and commitment. As COVID-19 guidelines were modified, our volunteer manager was able to welcome back longtime supporters and recruit new volunteers. It has been a pleasure to have the community back in our pantries.

Strong community partnerships have been key to our success at serving those in need during the pandemic. Through a new collaboration with the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, we have taken steps to increase our Food Rescue program’s reach as sources of donated food reopen. Social service agencies like Child Center of NY and Graham Windham, and local elected officials in the Bronx and Manhattan, partnered with our Mobile Pantry program to connect us with populations in need. Invisible Hands and UberEats help us bring food to the most vulnerable while we await the arrival of our Mobile Pantry vehicle. Foundation, corporate, government, and individual donors have generously responded to the increased need for our services, ensuring that our doors remain open and our pantry shelves stocked. While we anticipate the challenges created by COVID-19 will continue into FY22, we are guardedly optimistic that we will have the resources to meet them.