Food Security United States Project #48053

Food Relief for NYC Families Affected by COVID-19

by Children's Aid

Food Relief for NYC Families Affected by COVID-19

Project Report | Feb 3, 2023
Thank you for helping us raise nearly $21,000

By Danny Stern | Annual Giving Officer

Preschool breakfast

Thank you for your continued support over the past two-and-a-half years. As you know, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity skyrocketed. As a result, we began this project to provide free hunger relief packages to children and families in New York City who were severely impacted by the crisis. After providing 250,000+ hunger relief packages since the start of the pandemic, funded in part by the nearly $21,000 raised in this project, food insecurity — while still an issue — is not the emergency it was before, and we are therefore retiring this project.

As we look ahead, we will prioritize nutrition education and healthy food access for the families in New York City. But we wanted to take this opportunity for a look back at the incredible impact you had:

Your support has helped families like Marlin and her son Aidan, whose story we shared in a previous report. Marlin lost her job due to the pandemic, and could no longer afford food for her and her son, but with your support, her case worker was able to deliver hunger relief packages directly to their home so they could survive the difficult months and avoid prolonged periods of hunger. Today, Marlin thankfully has a steadier source of income, and hunger is no longer an issue.
Your aid has also helped Geronimo, a Children’s Aid nutritionist who has supported our efforts to combat inequitable food access. He has connected people in the communities we serve with produce from local farmers through our Go!Healthy Food Box program and provided them with access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. When hunger exploded in New York City during the pandemic, he stepped in to support the Food Box team at frequent distributions.

Thank you again for joining together to raise nearly $21,000 to help New Yorkers like Marlin and Aidan, Geronimo, and many others. We appreciate your generosity and will continue to provide relief to more New York City families in need, and we hope you will join us and support our future efforts.

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Jun 17, 2022
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Lauds Our Food Aid

By Danny Stern | Annual Giving Officer

At a national address earlier this year regarding USDA Actions on Nutrition Security, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack gave a really nice shout-out to Children’s Aid’s role as a precursor to the USDA National School Lunch Program. He then discussed USDA priorities on nutrition security, highlighting the importance of SNAP-Ed and Farm to School federally funded programs, both of which you have generously supported in the past. At 32:52 in the link below, you can check out his Children’s Aid mention:

https://youtu.be/6i6vxlgU44I?t=1972

As demand ticks back up for food assistance due to supply chain issues, the prices of food quickly rising, and pandemic assistance ending, the programs he highlights are of paramount importance today. We wanted to provide updates on how SNAP-Ed and Farm to School are making a difference:

The food box program incorporates pantry ingredients into its fresh and seasonal produce bags. All of the key ingredients for a weekly recipe are included so that families can make the vegetable wontons in winter and the asparagus soup with bread in the spring.
We expanded school-based food pantries at two schools and added a school-based food pantry at a third school in the Bronx. A parent shared, “During this time money was tight, we really appreciated the support of the pantry.”
In Spring 2022 we renovated one center-based garden in the Bronx. Before it held four raised beds. Now, there are nine wooden raised beds and four corrugated beds, dramatically expanding the growing space. This garden will supply ingredients for scratch-cooked Early Childhood meals as well as youth cooking classes.

Thank you for supporting the basic food necessities for New York City’s children, and for being a part of an effort to enhance New York City’s food assistance infrastructure with innovative solutions. You’re carrying on a proud tradition and legacy that started many years ago.

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Dec 16, 2021
Meet Geronimo, Who Launched School Food Pantries

By Danny Stern | Annual Giving Officer

Geronimo Branagan

As a nutritionist and Go!Chefs program manager for Go!Healthy, our hands-on, cooking-based nutrition education for students, Geronimo has worn many hats these past couple years — including a chef’s hat.

In his role as a nutritionist, he has conducted healthy eating and cooking classes at several of our sites for kids in our after-school programs, their adult caregivers, and community members at large. When school went remote, we quickly shifted the entire curriculum to go digital. “We started recording and editing videos to reach our families who were in lockdown,” he said. He also hosted Iron Go!Chefs, our year-end cooking competition, remotely. In the summer of 2021, we transitioned back to an in-person model to accommodate the changing needs of our community partners.

Geronimo has also supported our efforts to combat inequitable food access. He has connected people in the communities we serve with produce from local farmers through Go!Healthy’s Food Box program and provided them with access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. When hunger exploded in New York City during the pandemic, he stepped in to support the Food Box team at frequent distributions.

While the crisis of food insecurity has improved slightly since the early days of the pandemic, it still remains above pre-pandemic levels, and the issue is particularly pronounced in the South Bronx. That prompted Go!Healthy to launch a new program that continues tackling hunger head-on: food pantries at three Children’s Aid community schools in the South Bronx.

To launch the food pantries, Geronimo has worked with the Go!Healthy team and community school partners to set up wholesale ordering accounts to maximize efficiency and created a food pantry guide to help support school staff and families. Geronimo is in charge of ordering dry goods for these sites, and he also coordinates logistics around storage, distribution, and reporting. We expect these pantries to be a steady source of support for families, and that they will help ensure that students are nourished, healthy, and ready to thrive in school. The program plans to run throughout most of the school year, after which point Geronimo will then explore program improvements and options for sustainable funding.

But Geronimo makes sure to share the credit with his colleagues. “I am thankful to be a part of such a great team with such a powerful initiative. I played a small role in a bigger cause,” he said. Most of all, when he reflects back on what motivates him to do the work he does, he said it’s because he is proud to support “the vision to combat childhood obesity and provide families with the resources to live healthy, active lifestyles.”

Thanks to the generosity from friends like you, Geronimo and his teammates can continue having an impact in communities facing hardship this year.

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