This video story originally appeared on ABC7 NY Eyewitness News.
WEST HARLEM, NEW YORK — “If they weren’t here, it’d be a lot of people that are hungry.” That’s how Andrea Bedford describes what the Food Bank For New York City’s Community Kitchen in West Harlem means to her, where she comes a couple of times each week.
On National Food Bank Day, Eyewitness News visited the bustling kitchen, where Chef Sherri Jefferson and her team prepare more than 500 meals a day. With recent cuts to food benefits and new work requirements, she says the need is greater than ever: “Our lines are longer. In the evening time, we see more seniors. It’s affecting everyone, especially the children.”
Food Bank For NYC, the city’s largest hunger-relief organization, notes that more than 1 million New Yorkers don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Grocery costs have nearly tripled since 1983, when the Food Bank first opened.
Long-time volunteers like David Spitzner are stepping in to help. “I try and come down as much as possible, but I think it’s important that we not forget that…this is a solvable crisis.”
From vegetable lasagna to garden salad and garlic toast, the meals in West Harlem feed not just bodies but hope and community. And as lunch ends, the team immediately turns to serve more than 300 hardworking New Yorkers for dinner.
Watch the full video.
