Food Relief for NYC Families Affected by COVID-19

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.

Links:

• A Day in the Garden for Our Bronx Early Childhood Toddlers
• 11th Annual Iron Go!Chefs Showcases Student Cooks