THERE’S A BIG PROBLEM IN OUR CITY. An estimated 2.1 million New Yorkers rely on emergency food programs, including soup kitchens and pantries, each year.
Due to COVID-19 operations, many of our program partners closed or greatly limited operations, reducing our ability to reach our communities. To meet this new need, we expanded our Mobile Pantry program to distribute nutritionally balanced grocery packages directly to underserved neighborhoods. Last year, New York Common Pantry worked to alleviate hunger through the following Fiscal Year 2021 programmatic goals and outcomes:
Choice Pantry Manhattan
Goal: To provide 1,900,000 meals
Goal Exceeded: Provided 2,072,356 meals
Choice Pantry Bronx
Goal: To provide 800,000 meals
Goal Exceeded: Provided 1,030,033 meals
Mobile Pantry
Goal: Identify up to 5 communities Mobile Pantry will serve and establish 8-20 distribution partners
Goal Exceeded: Consistently served more than 5 communities and established more than 50 distribution partners
Choice Pantry Overall
Goal: To distribute 2.7 million meals to 13,000 households through Food Pantry Programs
Goal Exceeded: Distributed 4.2 million meals to 20,501 total households through our Manhattan, Bronx and Mobile pantry programs
Goal: To ensure at least 40% of food we offer is fresh produce
Goal Almost Met: 39% of food offered was fresh produce
Hot Meals
Goal: To serve 60,000 meals through Hot Meals and 10,000 Brown Bag Lunches at Choice Pantry Manhattan for a total of 70,000 meals
Goal Not Met: Hot Meals served 44,089 meals and Brown Bags served 13,612
Note: COVID-19 operations limited Hot Meals to one/day (rather than two)
Nourish
Goal: To provide 14,492 individuals with 3,999,792 meals
Goal Not Met: Nourish served an average of 13,347, per month for a total of 3,683,841 meals
Note: COVID-19 forced many Nourish senior sites to close or greatly limit operations, reducing Nourish service numbers
Help 365
Goal: To ensure 1,500 households receive benefits
Goal Exceeded: 1,628 households received benefits
Goal: To ensure 80% acceptance rate for SNAP applications
Goal Met: Achieved 81% approval rate
Help 365 Mobile
Goal: To submit 1,548 SNAP applications and secure 950 approvals
Goal Not Met: Submitted 1,086 applications and secured 848 approvals
Project Dignity
Goal: To help 28 people receive on-site psychiatric services
Goal Exceeded: Helped 41 people receive on-site psychiatric services
Goal: To help 50 people acquire public benefits (SNAP, Medicaid, cash assistance)
Goal Exceeded: Helped 154 people acquire public benefits
Live Healthy!
Goal: At least 60% of people will demonstrate an increase in their fruit and vegetable consumption
Goal Exceeded: 67.9% increased fruit consumption, 69.7% improved vegetable consumption
Goal: At least 70% of program participants will demonstrate intentions and goals to increase physical activity 10 minutes a day
Goal Exceeded: 75.2% of participants identified an intention to increase their physical activity
New York Common Pantry will continue to bridge the gap in alleviating food insecurity and creating a safe and welcoming environment where our members have access to fresh food, nutrition education, and case management services.
Thank you for standing with New York Common Pantry in the fight against hunger and food insecurity! To learn more about how you can make a difference please visit the How to Help section of our website.