As the cost of living in New York City rises, so does the number of hungry New Yorkers. Nobody knows this better than City Harvest. My agency relations team recently shared with me that three quarters of our agency partners are rationing food distributions – giving out smaller pantry bags or smaller meal servings – in order to serve a greater number of people. They’re asking City Harvest for more food.
Knowing how critical the situation has now become, we’ve pledged to secure an additional three million pounds of food this year, bringing the total we plan to rescue to 23 million pounds. Keeping in line with our mission, 75% of that poundage will be nutrient dense food like fresh produce, meat, and dairy. I’ve never seen my staff so determined to meet a challenge – because we know how great our impact can be.
Fortunately for City Harvest, New Yorkers remain committed to feeding other New Yorkers. Our continuing deliveries of fresh, nutritious food depend on the generosity of so many individuals and companies. We’re constantly reaching out to new donors and to old friends and finding new, more efficient ways to move food. I’ll keep you updated on our progress throughout the year. It’s a big push, but we’re up to the challenge.
2 responses so far ↓
Volunteer // July 18, 2008 at 11:05 am |
Jilly,
Thanks for starting a blog. Great idea!
Your mission statement reads:
“City Harvest exists to end hunger in communities throughout New York City. We do this through food rescue and distribution, education, and other practical, innovative solutions.”
The first sentence in your blog entry implies that you are not making progress on achieving your mission of ending hunger in New York City. Is food rescue really an effective means of ending hunger? Or does it just stave off the hunger for one more day?
As a long time City Harvest supporter, I believe it is time for City Harvest to expand from solving the short term hunger problem to actually ending the longer term hunger problem in NYC and beyond. Your model is successful and your support base is the strongest ever. Now is the time to build on that momentum. Forget all the day to day issues and dare to dream big. You’ll be surprised at who you’ll inspire and what you’ll achieve.
Best Regards,
A Volunteer
Michael Paone // July 31, 2008 at 11:54 am |
Hello Jilly,
To build on the previous comment, I know for a fact that City Harvest has an immense amount of programs that go above and beyond food rescue. I was wondering, in particular, if you could talk about some of your advocacy efforts on the blog, in particular, and what exactly they are targeted at achieving (food security, economic development, public benefits, etc?). Also, what, from your and City Harvest’s view, does a good, strong food system look like? What is that end vision, and how is City Harvest working towards it?
Fellow food activist,
Michael
http://www.whanap.org