I first announced my plans for retirement in December, and now the time has come for me to pass the torch. September marks the sunset of my tenure as President and CEO of Food Bank For New York City. And, while the Food Bank will surely continue to succeed under the new leadership of Margarette Purvis, I will never cease to be a champion for our cause and for the people we serve, especially now.
We are entering VERY dire times. There are currently three million New York City residents that find it hard to afford food for themselves and their families. They are teachers, seniors, veterans, mothers, the working poor, adults living with disabilities, maybe even your neighbor, maybe even you — and they are struggling. Making it through the month often seems impossible; it brings stress, depression and panic. Through the years, they have come to depend on the Food Bank and our network of more than 1,000 community-based member programs such as soup kitchens, food pantries, senior and community centers, free income tax service sites and more. One in five relies on us. And now, we’re finding it hard to make ends meet too.
Changes in federal and state funding are poised to have a devastating effect on those we serve. Potential federal funding cuts could leave New York City's emergency food network with 10 million fewer meals for new Yorkers in need.
In spite of these challenges, the Food Bank For New York City continues to help provide more than 400,000 free meals a day. In fact, since our beginnings, we have distributed more than one billion pounds of food across all five boroughs. Food distribution is the core of our mission, but also the foundation for a host of other social services to help people get back on their feet. I’ve seen first-hand how our solutions to hunger have effected positive change in the lives of so many.
In the face of these challenging times, I choose to leave this legacy behind: that together, we can do it! We can make sure every New Yorker has permanent access to nutritious, affordable food, the resources to survive and the knowledge to make a better choice. Our resolve and dedication to this cause is powerful, and transforming. And, as my time as leader of this great organization comes to a close, I am excited about the bright future ahead.
I write to you this morning with very serious news. Because of reallocations in New York State’s emergency food program (HPNAP), the Food Bank is losing close to 50 percent of the annual budget for our Community Kitchen & Food Pantry — a program that serves more than 1,000,000 meals and reaches 4,000 families annually.
A man eating dinner at the Food Bank's Community Kitchen & Food Pantry
Such a significant loss of funding to one of our central programs would be difficult to cope with at any time. But knowing that demand for food assistance at the Food Bank Community Kitchen continues to increase presents quite a dire image of the effect this loss could have on the Harlem community. Adding to that picture, the Food Bank’s supply of emergency food faces serious cuts at the federal level as well, as the federal program (TEFAP) is on track to provide 10 million fewer meals to our city this year.
The Community Kitchen served more than 1,000,000 meals at its soup kitchen and reached more than 4,000 families through its choice-style food pantry last year. Further, the Community Kitchen serves as the headquarters for our Free Income Tax Services program, which brought more than $65 million in tax refunds and credits to low-income New Yorkers this past season.
Through these services, the Community Kitchen is a pivotal resource in West Harlem, and a model for our citywide network of community-based programs such as soup kitchens, food pantries, senior centers and more. Because of the great need and the generosity of our supporters, the Food Bank will weather this crisis. As you read this post, our Board of Directors is working to ensure that we continue to provide for our clients and the community, and that the Community Kitchen is able to grow in the long term.
But with nearly 50 percent of our funding lost, we are going to need the help of supporters like you. The Community Kitchen has never needed your help more than it does now — please consider making a donation today to support the Food Bank in this time of need.
Thank you for everything that you are able to do to support the Food Bank and our vulnerable neighbors. Please stay tuned to this blog, and consider joining us on Facebook and Twitter, to stay up-to-date on the emergency food shortages being faced by our city.
Posted At: January 7, 2011 3:41 PM | Posted By: Food Bank
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Letter from Lucy
Dear Friends,
I write to you today with mixed emotions to announce that I will be retiring as the Food Bank For New York City’s President and CEO.
I look back on my career at the Food Bank with great pride. Our mission has expanded beyond food distribution to ongoing support and resources that enable more than 1,000 community food programs to build capacity and connect their communities with much needed benefits and services. Along the way, the Food Bank has grown from a small provider to one of the country’s largest and most prestigious food banks, serving 1.5 million New Yorkers today through food distribution, income support and nutrition and health education.
Growing up, I saw poverty firsthand. My mother was a garment factory worker and my father was a cook. It was the fear of being poor that made me push myself because I wanted something more for my children.
Now, after 23 years with the Food Bank, I leave behind an organization that is in a strong financial position, has a stellar reputation, and an independent research wing. I’m confident that the strength of our community food program network, a highly committed board of directors, a skilled and dedicated executive team and a committed group of supporters like you will take the Food Bank to the next level. I will continue to serve in my current role as our Board of Directors engages in a search for the Food Bank’s next leader.
Thank to you everyone who has helped make what the Food Bank does possible.
Sincerely,
Lucy Cabrera, CAE, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Food Bank For New York City
The U.S. Census released new statistics today, which find that nearly 44 million Americans lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 3.8 million (+14%) from 2008. These numbers represent the largest number of U.S. residents living in poverty on record. (Click here for the full report.)
Unfortunately, this does not come as a surprise to the Food Bank For New York City. Since the beginning of the recession in December 2007, the Food Bank has witnessed lines growing longer at soup kitchens and food pantries. More than 90 percent of NYC’s emergency food organizations reported an increase in new clients last year, and more than three million city residents reported difficulty affording food for their households. Despite talk of recovery — there appears to be no let-up in sight. Unemployment rates are still more than double what they were at the onset of the recession; more families have long since spent down their savings and are relying on our services just to keep basic food on the table.
Equally troubling is the fact that government resources are not increasing to help meet the demand. Instead, the Food Bank has witnessed budget cuts to vital services for the poor or at best, a shifting of funding that amounts to robbing-Peter-To-Pay-Paul. For example, Congress recently opted to cut food stamp funding to pay for education and medical services for the poor and at this very moment is considering another cut to the food stamp pot to pay for the Child Nutrition bill. As more and more families fall upon hard times, they will certainly fall through the safety net that has begun to unravel under the extra weight. Without an infusion of new funding to reinforce basic services like emergency food, food stamps and housing — poverty, hunger and homelessness will continue to skyrocket.
Sincerely,
Lucy Cabrera, Ph.D., CAE
President and CEO
Right now, 1.7 million New Yorkers are using food stamps to help make ends meet. Their incomes have been decimated by job losses and rising costs, and food stamps supplement stretched budgets, putting food on the table for children, seniors and other vulnerable populations.
At the Food Bank, we recognize that federal benefits like food stamps are a key piece of the hunger safety net, and it is critical that we do everything we can to connect low-income New Yorkers to the program. That’s why income support is an integral part of our mission, and why we work with our network to raise awareness of food stamps and help eligible households apply. As people reach out for help in increasing numbers, we’re ensuring that they are offered a full range of services.
I am grateful to know that despite the staggering levels of need we face, struggling families and individuals can find compassion and respect at food assistance organizations all over the city. Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, of Food Bank network member Oneg Shabbos, puts it best, saying, “Numbers are important, but what’s more important is that every number has a face.”
We encourage all of our supporters to put a face to these numbers by volunteering at one of the approximately 1,000 food assistance programs in our citywide network and meeting some of the wonderful people they serve. You can also “meet” some of these New Yorkers right now — including Jeff, who has had trouble finding work since an injury and whose kids actually get excited over broccoli — by reading our online Meet the People We Help stories.
*The following updates Dr. Cabrera's statement of August 6.
Within the past week, both houses of Congress passed legislation that will rob the Food Stamp Program (SNAP) of billions of dollars in order to provide aid for Medicaid and education programs. A Senate vote to reduce food stamp benefits by billions more to pay for child nutrition programs now awaits approval by the House. It is regrettable that these votes are being touted as a victory.
There is no question that our health care, education and child nutrition programs need adequate funding. But our public health care system, public education system and food stamps all serve the same population, and by taking money away from any one of these programs to fund another, Congress is playing a shell game that low-income Americans will always lose.
In fact, Congress is undermining its own goals: a person will not remain in good health if he or she cannot afford a healthy diet; and a child who goes to school hungry will not learn. Low-income families struggling to put food on the table will only find themselves one step closer to a food pantry or soup kitchen door at a time when emergency food resources are already scarce.
Funding services at the expense of those most in need cannot be the answer. It is the worst example of robbing Peter to pay Paul. While it is imperative that Congress find funding for health care programs, public schools and nutrition assistance programs, this funding must not come from other programs and services low-income people rely on. Congress must rectify these misguided funding proposals immediately.
Of course, no matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow, and I hope that in time we will begin to see signs of relief after such a long and brutal economic storm. For now, however, there is still a real and immediate need that must be met. The troubled economy has tried everyone’s resilience — from the city’s poorest, who have struggled with adversity and found themselves fighting even harder to survive, to the newly unemployed, who have turned to food stamps and food pantries for the first time.
I have worked with the Food Bank for more than 20 years to make sure that each of those individuals finds help when he or she needs it. Together, the Food Bank, our network and our supporters like you have worked hard to keep New Yorkers from falling through the cracks — New Yorkers like Alberta, a mother and retiree who came to St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in the Bronx for emergency food and stayed to become a member of a community that supports and looks out for her. Or the many working families and individuals who turned to the Food Bank’s Tax Assistance Program this year — a simple initiative that brings millions of dollars in federal tax refunds into our city.
Your support and dedication help keep programs like these fully funded. The Food Bank is there for New Yorkers in need, and I am grateful to you for standing beside us.
April 18–24 marks Volunteer Appreciation Week, and I want to thank you for giving your time to the Food Bank For New York City — volunteers are an essential part of our year-round operations, and I am so grateful for your commitment.
You are making a difference for families and individuals in New York City, and your support couldn’t come at a better time: 93% of soup kitchens and food pantries are seeing an increase in first-time visitors. The Food Bank is the major supplier of food to our citywide network of approximately 1,000 food assistance programs, helping meet our neighbors’ immediate needs. Free tax assistance and food stamp outreach lay the groundwork for financial independence, and nutrition and health education helps New Yorkers access healthy, affordable food.
Your enthusiasm and generosity are an inspiration, and I am proud to be working alongside you in the fight to end hunger in New York City.
As I mentioned in my last letter here (A Year in Recession, Jan 15), 2009 was a hard year for the Food Bank For New York City and the New Yorkers we serve. While we anticipate that economic hardship will continue in 2010, as we look back at this past fall and early winter — our busiest time of year — all of us at the Food Bank are deeply inspired by how our supporters came together in these difficult times.
Our inspiration comes from the outpouring of support for the Food Bank’s 2009 NYC Goes Orange campaign, with more than 300 partners raising food, funds and public awareness for New Yorkers who struggle to get by. The season also saw the launch of the Adopt a Food Program initiative — a partnership between the Food Bank and Mayor Bloomberg’s NYC Service that will dramatically increase volunteer support across our food assistance network.
Also, we launched the 2009–2010 CookShop school year. These unique Food Bank programs bring nutrition education to elementary and high school students as well as adults, inspiring enthusiasm for healthy, affordable foods. [PLUS: Witness our health and nutrition education efforts first-hand in our CookShop video.] And the Food Bank’s 18th Annual Agency Conference brought together hundreds from the hunger relief community, along with elected officials to strategize and build strength for the coming year.
With 3.3 million New Yorkers currently experiencing difficulty affording the food they need, it is essential that we continue this momentum together. President Barack Obama has set a goal to end childhood hunger in America by 2015. We’re now five years from that target, and I invite you to invest in our future by helping us end food poverty.
Posted At: January 15, 2010 9:53 AM | Posted By: Food Bank
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Letter from Lucy
Dear Friends,
The past year presented many challenges for the Food Bank For New York City. Unemployment reached a 26-year high. And 93 percent of our member soup kitchens and food pantries saw an increase in first-time visitors, as reported in our latest research report, NYC Hunger Experience 2009.
While the country’s response to the recession appears to have had a real impact on hunger, most of the government increases in support were designed as temporary measures — and will soon end.
Over 2009, the Food Bank brought hunger awareness into new arenas. Social marketing campaigns encouraged healthy eating and Food Stamp enrollment, while online efforts — the launch of Bank on It, the blog you're reading right now; our Twitter presence; and a YouTube channel — spread the word to new online communities and give you the opportunity to spread the word to your communities by passing along out blog posts, tweets and videos.
Feeding a Family on Food Stamps
marl p said: Thank you for sharing your story, but unfortunately not everyone has a happy ending. I am currently...
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At the Food Bank, we recognize that federal benefits like food stamps are a key piece of the hunger safety net, and it is critical that we do everything we can to connect 
Last year, the Food Bank had the privilege of hosting 15,000 
