Food Bank For New York City continually works to raise awareness and support for hunger relief through media outreach and information sharing. Here are highlights of the recent stories that have featured the Food Bank:
NY1, “Food Bank Offers Free Tax Help As Uncle Sam Offers Sizable Tax Credit”
With tax season officially in full swing, the Food Bank For New York City, elected official and government agencies join forces to make sure New Yorkers get back every penny they deserve…read more[Includes VIDEO]
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, “Free Tax Site Helps Brooklynites File for EITC Credits”
The Food Bank partners with the Brooklyn Community Foundation and Capital One Bank to provide tax assistance for the working poor in northern Brooklyn as part of our Tax Assistance Program...read more
The Huffington Post, “My 2010 Wish List for NYC”
Gordon Campbell, President and CEO of United Way NYC, brings in the New Year with a loud cheer and his recommendations of achievable goals for 2010 that will help low-income New Yorkers…read more
The Economist, Letter to the Editor
Food Bank For New York City President and CEO Lucy Cabrera responds to “The Big Apple Is Hungry,” published in January 2010 by The Economist…read more
The Packer, “Produce Industry Contributes Heavily to Feeding New York’s Hungry” The Packer — the leading source of news for the fresh fruit and vegetable industry — explores the Food Bank’s food distribution efforts, which provided more than 13 million pounds of fresh produce for New Yorkers in need in fiscal year 2009…read more
Former President Bill Clinton speaking at the Food Bank's 2009 Can-Do Awards Dinner; photo by Tran Dinh
Here at the Food Bank, we work to improve child nutrition because we know kids’ food choices can have lifelong health effects. Last week, at a press conference in Harlem, former President Bill Clinton said he learned that lesson the hard way.
We’re working to meet similar goals through programs like CookShop, which encourages the development of healthy diets among New York City students and their families, as well as community outreach and advocacy on issues like universal school meals.
With work like ours — and similar efforts from a dynamic duo like the former president and the current first lady — maybe we can protect more children from the outcomes of poor nutrition.
Congressman Charles Rangel shows his support for strong student leadership as he chats with students trained as tax preparers from Frederick Douglass Academy and Rice High School.
Our free tax services can constitute a significant step from food poverty toward self-sufficiency.
Food Bank Board Chair Rev. Henry Belin hosted our special guest speakers at the kickoff event and emphasized the importance of community support for the program.
Then, on February 18, the Food Bank, Capital One Bank and the Brooklyn Community Foundation joined forces to bring attention to the program at the Fulton Street Capital One, where our program provides tax assistance for the northern Brooklyn community. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz joined Fran Freedman, LMSW, Deputy Commissioner, External Affairs NYC Department of Consumer Affairs; our Vice President of Agency Resources & Benefit Access Carlos Rodriguez and Capital One’s Brooklyn Market President B.J. Duffy to extol the benefits of free tax assistance.
The Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program provides low-income New Yorkers with free tax preparation services as well as information on how to access the various credits they are entitled to – including the Earned Income Tax Credit , a key piece of the public safety net for the working poor. One of the largest programs of its type in the country, the Food Bank's Tax Assistance Program has completed up to 50,000 tax returns for low- to moderate-income New Yorkers annually — helping to provide as much as $100 million in tax refunds.
If you think you may be eligible for EITC, use Intuit’s free EITC calculator today. For a listing of the Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program sites, click here.
Our advocacy page contains up-to-date information on ways members of the public can help protect this vital program, including contact information for key elected officials and talking points people can use to help convince them that cutting funding for emergency food is the wrong way to plug the city’s budget gap.
For example, EFAP represents just 0.017 percent of the city budget — a tiny amount that supports hundreds of local food pantries and soup kitchens.
And even with EFAP funding, almost half the city's soup kitchens and food pantries had to turn hungry people away last year. With local unemployment now over 10 percent, the number of people needing help is expected to grow.
What are your reasons for protecting EFAP? Share your thoughts and help spread the word!
The New York Budget pas de deux is in full swing — and both Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson are dangerously close to trampling on New York City’s most vulnerable.
The governor’s proposal also called for a $1.3 billion drop in overall state funding for New York City. In response, last week Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a preliminary budget that outlined steps the city could take if the governor’s plan succeeds — a list that includes eliminating New York’s Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP), which provides millions of dollars in funding to about 500 local soup kitchens and food pantries each year.
“[It’s] just a possibility, but in the aggregate it has to be something like this,” the mayor said.
President Obama seems to recognize the need to provide for America’s most vulnerable. Despite his call to cap federal discretionary funding, the budget released by the president this week calls for an investment in Child Nutrition programs, and preserves funding for emergency food assistance.
Even with this federal aid, significant cuts to food assistance at the state and local level would be devastating to those who depend on these funds to eat.
“You have my commitment that we won’t let the quality of life decline now,” Mayor Bloomberg said in his budget address, calling on New York to “do more with less.”
But those who turn to soup kitchens and food pantries are already struggling to do more with less. They are falling behind on rent. They aren’t filling needed prescriptions. The food pantry and soup kitchen are often their last resort.
It’s bad enough that families are sacrificing basic needs to balance their budgets. New York City and State should not follow them down that desperate, dangerous road.
In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama’s call to freeze federal discretionary spending raised alarms about the future of discretionary nutrition assistance programs, including certain components of The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). But the budget he released on Monday demonstrates his administration’s commitment to keeping food on the tables of America’s most vulnerable.
White House Photo, Pete Souza, 1/27/10
According to an analysis by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC), the president’s budget would preserve $246.5 million for commodity purchases under TEFAP, as well as another $50 million for transportation and distribution costs.
The president has said he wants to end child hunger by 2015. The expansions he has proposed, particularly for child nutrition, are a promising step — especially in a budget that includes cuts — but achieving this goal will require far more.
Food Bank For New York City applauds President Obama for protecting these vital programs during a national fiscal crisis. It’s a good starting point for a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization that includes Universal School Meals. And it sends the clear message that feeding people in need is especially important during hard times – a message we hope state and city leaders also hear and take to heart.
Comparing America to a “cash-strapped family,” President Obama announced a tightening of the federal money belt in his State of the Union Address this week.
“We will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don’t,” he said. “Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years.”
Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security won’t be affected, the president said — but all discretionary government programs could find their way to the chopping block. And if The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) is among the programs that land there, New York’s cash-strapped families will suffer.
Last year, TEFAP helped protect millions of struggling American families from hunger, distributing about $250 million in food to emergency food providers.
In New York City, 40 percent of families reported difficulty affording food last year. TEFAP — which received a major boost from the stimulus bill — was a key reason that figure was lower than the year before (48 percent).
Even with this temporarily increased help from TEFAP, more than half of our city’s food pantries and soup kitchens have reported running out of food or having to turn people away in recent years, unable to keep up with the dramatically increased demand.
Without TEFAP and other federal nutrition programs, even more families could face closed doors.
To be sure, the president’s speech wasn’t all doom and gloom for families in need.
His commitment to double the child care tax credit and to expand the tax credit for “those who start a nest egg” could free up families to spend more precious resources on food. The Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program, which already helps thousands of New York City’s working poor access critical tax credits, will help many others achieve greater financial stability.
Low-income families could also achieve greater financial empowerment — the key to ending food poverty — through the president’s efforts to reduce the high cost of health care. In addition, First Lady Michelle Obama’s choice to spearhead the fight against childhood obesity could improve the health — and reduce health care costs — for millions of low-income children.
Although the president has said he hopes to end child hunger by 2015, that goal will never be reached without protecting critical food and nutrition programs. Tough choices lie ahead, but if we are to protect our country’s children and their struggling families, cutting these programs cannot be among them.
Last year the Obama administration made promising gestures toward improving child nutrition in America, including a proposal to add $1 billion to child nutrition programs.
But will these leanings lead to action? Tonight’s State of Union Address could offer a grim clue.
President Obama is expected to call for a three-year freeze on domestic programs. And with the Child Nutrition Act now up for reauthorization in Congress, some fear that the freeze could mean arresting the growth of critical programs feeding America’s hungriest children -- right when they are needed most.
With the economic crisis ongoing, families in New York and across the country are still reeling from lost jobs and slashed salaries, making nutritious food hard to afford.
The NYC Hunger Experience 2009 report, recently released by the Food Bank For New York City, found that almost half (47 percent) of households with children in New York City experienced difficulty buying needed food for themselves and their families last year.
A Child Nutrition Reauthorization that provides for Universal School Meals would ensure these children can count on at least one nutritious meal per day.
“Will a program created to 'promote the health and well-being of the nation's children' survive the freeze?” wrote Debra Eschmeyer, Food and Society Fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade, in today’sHuffington Post. “Probably not, unless we, the voting public, find our voice and let our elected officials know that child nutrition in general -- and the National School Lunch Program in particular -- is a priority.”
What would you say to President Obama to convince him not to freeze funds for child nutrition programs? Share your thoughts!
The world is hectic and there is so much going on. Today, the world is still reeling with the massive devastation from the earthquake in Haiti. Here in the U.S., families are worried about the status of their loved ones who are there. New York has a strong Haitian population, and many New Yorkers are taking the need for awareness onto themselves — providing support through Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Celebrities from Ashton Kutcher to Wyclef Jean are asking us to take action and donate supplies, money and resources.
Of the many tragedies of this situation, one is that it takes a natural disaster to wake so many people up to the world outside our windows. It is wonderful that we can respond, and I hope that we can make a meaningful difference. But the one glimmer of hope that comes to me from this situation is that now people can see what we are able to do in the most difficult of circumstances. My hope is that people will understand that we have the power and resources to help on a continuous basis.
American Red Cross in Greater New York CEO Terry Bischoff watches as Food Bank President and CEO Lucy Cabrera signs a 2009 Memorandum of Understanding, providing a framework for cooperation between the two organizations for food, water, personnel, equipment and/or information in support of disaster relief operations
Food Bank For New York City certainly understands this, and the Food Bank partners with the American Red Cross of Greater New York to help prepare for and respond collaboratively to natural disasters. There are many reputable organizations, like the American Red Cross, that provide ongoing support to those who are suffering from devastation — short- or long-term. The earthquake in Haiti can serve as a wake-up call to get up, get out and do something to help those that are less fortunate.
Because, as Haiti has shown, ignoring poverty inevitably leads to greater disaster — as the Food Bank’s Volunteer Services Manager, I am asking you to make action part of your day-to-day life. The mini samples that you take from the hotel, put those in baggies and send them to a woman’s shelter; the not-so-pretty sweater that grandma gave, take it to the local mission and provide warmth to a homeless person; those chick peas that you swore you were going to make hummus with, take them your local pantry and let them pass them along to someone who needs a meal.
The more conscious we are every day, the less suffering there will be when disaster does hit. What matters most is not how you respond, but that you do respond.
Food Bank For New York City continually works to raise awareness and support for hunger relief through media outreach and information sharing. Here are highlights of the recent stories that have featured the Food Bank:
CNN International, “Growing Number of New Yorkers Depend on Food Help”
CNN International visits the Food Bank’s Community Kitchen & Food Pantry of West Harlem to examine a nationwide increase in need for food assistance...read more [includes VIDEO]
New York Daily News, “Queens Sees Huge Surge In Demand for Emergency Meals & Food”
Queens has seen a whopping 106 percent spike in the number of emergency meals being provided to hungry residents in the past two years — the second-highest increase in the city — according to a recent report on hunger from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand...read more
The New York Post, “Target Gives $5K to Boro Soup Kitchen”
Target Stores donates $5,000 to Food Bank network member Biblica Restauracion church and soup kitchen in Sunnyside, Queens...read more
Kate Hindin, This Is Your Life
Kate Hindin said: Thank you Daniel for this wonderful homage! I will always cherish my time at the Food Bank. I got to...
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A Taste of Tennis
San Antonio Tennis Lessons said: Wow great food and a a great sport, what more could you ask for?
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As we 
Comparing America to a “cash-strapped family,” President Obama announced a tightening of the federal money belt in his 
