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 | Jul 8, 2021
How We Are Continuing to Combat Hunger

By Danny Stern | Annual Giving Officer

Produce food relief

It has been one year since we started this hunger relief project, and in many ways, this summer is a welcome reprieve from so much of the hardship. There are fewer COVID-19 cases, in-person gatherings are resuming, and life is getting back to normal. But in the backdrop of this return to normalcy remains an unfortunate reality: Today, a staggering 1 in 3 New York City children still experience food insecurity. For that reason, we are still heavily focused on combating the hunger crisis that this pandemic exacerbated. As supporters of our work, we wanted to share some updates with you on this initiative:

YOUR IMPACT: Through this project alone, you have raised enough funds to provide nearly 2,000 hunger relief packages to children in need. This incredible contribution is an essential part of the 150,000 total hunger relief packages we have provided so far throughout COVID-19.
CONTINUED RELIEF: This summer and fall, we are ramping up our food distributions to continue tackling hunger head-on. We will be providing four “food box” bulk distributions per week, and we are also adding a new food truck service option for expanded access.
COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS: Through a partnership that started last fall with a nonprofit called Rethink and a local family-owned restaurant called BARCHA, we have been providing 515 restaurant meals a week to families in need. This summer, we are excited to be growing our restaurant partnerships to include Gyro King food truck, which will deliver 2,000 hot halal meals per week to our children and families. These restaurant partnerships are especially critical for kids who would have otherwise relied on canned or nutritionally subpar food. We also partner with Westside Campaign Against Hunger to distribute produce boxes to an additional 550 families.
VIRTUAL EDUCATION PROGRAMS: Before pivoting to a hunger-relief focus in the pandemic, much of our food and nutrition programming centered around education — and that has not stopped. We have been able to maintain the education component along with our hunger relief distributions through the pandemic. Due to their popularity, we plan to continue offering those virtual options. Such options include virtual cooking and nutrition education for children and families of all ages.
IN-PERSON EDUCATION PROGRAMS: We are also excited to share that we are continuing to transition more of our programming back to in-person, allowing kids to get their hands in the soil, harvest a ripe tomato straight off the vine, and taste the food we cook together. During our “Summer Rising” summer school, offered to children who want to catch up in their academics, we are providing in-person nutrition education classes. We are also offering such programming at our early childhood centers and three elementary schools. And in 2022, we plan to switch our end-of-year cooking competition, Iron Go!Chefs, back to in-person. (Congrats to our winning team this year, Fairmont-Samara Campus, for their delicious dish “Soul Empanadas”!)

Thank you for making sure New York City’s children do not go hungry. We could not do it without you.

P.S. Please also look out for an email regarding a July 14 Bonus Day matching gift opportunity!

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Mar 4, 2021
100,000

By Danny Stern | Donor Relations Manager

Nov 9, 2020
After Hunger Relief, Nutrition Comes Next

By Danny Stern | Donor Relations Manager

1.5 million New York City residents cannot afford food today — and many are children. In response to this crisis, you generously donated, and because you did, we have provided more than 75,000 food packages to thousands of hungry families. For so many kids, this has made the difference between skipping dinner, or having a nutritious meal to eat.

But it doesn’t stop at providing food packages. Shortly after the pandemic started, Children’s Aid staff member and professional chef Mario Landaverde, RDN, began hosting virtual nutrition and cooking lessons for our 3- through 8-year-olds. “At first, I was worried that they wouldn’t be engaged,” Mario said. “But I definitely underestimated what we could do virtually!”

For many kids, especially the ones cooped up indoors without much to do, it’s become the highlight of their week. They get to socialize with their friends and participate in interactive activities, like a food scavenger hunt. During the scavenger hunt, Mario invites his Children's Aid colleague Reina Perez to help out. Together, they challenge the youngsters to bring specific fruits from their fridge and show them off to their friends, or, they might ask them to find objects that have a similar shape to a carrot. After they find their fruits and veggies, they put on their chef hats and watch Mario prepare the food, and practice the cutting motions along with him using their imaginary "chef knives."

While the kids do have plenty of fun, Mario’s main goal is to use the lessons as an educational tool for the kids to become more familiar with healthy eating practices, and to teach some healthy cooking skills that they can then share with their parents.

“We are clearing up a lot of misconceptions, and helping families become savvy readers of nutrition labels. For example, we’ve had moms who believed children always need juice, until we informed them that it’s actually very sugary and not as healthy as water,” Mario shared. “For some of our immigrant families, they didn’t have the same vegetables in their native countries that we have in New York City, so we teach them how to integrate local produce into recipes.”

Staying healthy and eating well was important before the pandemic, but it’s become especially critical today. If a family member contracts the virus, they have better outcomes if they are eating right and staying healthy.

Mario recalls one special experience in particular he had recently. “I just had one student, Ian, who saw his mom drinking soda right after our lesson about healthy drinks. He asked her to consider a healthier alternative, and because of his special request, she replaced her soda with something better.”

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