Yorkville Common Pantry

         I am sitting in my 13th floor apartment overlooking the Hudson River and staring, daunted, at my seven pages of notes about Yorkville Common Pantry.  YCP is an incredible and overwhelming organization.  Today, I spent all day talking with the staff at YCP and volunteering and touring the organization facilities.  YCP has four main subsections: most importantly, the food pantry, which serves 1400-1600 families each week, secondly, the soup kitchen, which is open for breakfast and dinner most days and served 75,800 meals last year, thirdly, is 365 YCP, an emergency food and referral program and a benefits acquisition service for clients who need help applying for food stamps, Social Security, etc., and lastly, is Project Dignity, which provides basic services like laundry, haircuts, and showers and helps to bring clients out of homelessness.  Taken together, these subsections represent an incredible community organization that focuses, not only on providing food, but on bringing clients out of food instability. 
          Upon arriving at YCP, I was sent down to the food pantry to help package family food bags.  Instead of a vendor-style line, in which clients walk around a U-shaped table and choose what they want from bins, YCP has pre-packaged, non-perishable food bags that are distribute to families based on family size.  I spent the hour bagging canned peaches and oatmeal and talking to two Canadian Mennonite farm boys from Canada who were in New York on a six-month mission.  Unlike some of the open-door programs I visited in New York, YCP's pantry requires membership.  To be a member, families need to provide proof of residence, proof of income, and proof of family size.  YCP has this luxury because they have both an emergency meal program and a soup kitchen that can serve families with immediate needs.  Clients can come once every 14 days and the food bags are designed to last roughly four days.  The recipients of these bags are often clients who have jobs but cannot make enough money to support themselves self-sufficiently.  After all, the poverty line in New York City is 250% the national poverty line.  A second problem in New York is the existence of food deserts--areas and neighborhoods where families cannot buy fresh food.  For many, they couldn't buy fresh food in their area even if they could pay in full.  Last year, there were roughly 6,000 active households utilizing the food pantry as a resource.  Volunteers, like the Canadian boys, are, of course, incredibly integral.  YCP estimates that their volunteers save them at least $300,000 dollars each year.  The food pantry requires roughly 15-20 volunteers each week and volunteers put in a total of 23,000 labor hours last year.  The pantry is actually in the process of changing their distribution model from the food bags to an ordering system in which clients can pre-order their bags according to their preferences online or on tablets available in the office and pick up their specialized food packages.  I have never heard of this method and I am curious to see how that will work. 
          YCP's other food component, the soup kitchen, is also quite large.  The hot breakfast is open five days a week and serves roughly 250 people each day and the dinner is open three days a week and serves roughly 300 people each day.  Entry into the soup kitchen requires only initials, a date of birth, and gender.  Those who use the soup kitchen are often historically homeless and often suffer from mental illness and substance abuse.  Roughly 70% of YCP's food is donated by two major city organizations: New York City Food Bank and City Harvest.  In total, YCP receives about $1.2 million dollars in donated food each year and must buy an additional $590,000 dollars of food each year.  Of the food received, 70% of the produce is grown by New York state farmers. 
          Many clients come for the soup kitchen's hot breakfast and stay after to utilize the services provided through Project Dignity.  YCP has the facilities for people to shower, get their mail, do laundry, and receive haircuts.  New York State is somewhat of an anomaly because the laws require the state to provide housing for everyone.  Everyone, that is, who goes through the draconian and complicated process of applying for housing.  A major part of Project Dignity consists of one-on-one time with staff case managers who help clients to apply and qualify for housing, health care, and other benefits.  The housing process can take anywhere from a few weeks to eight months. 
         Finally, YCP runs the 365 YCP program, which operates an office all day, every day.  People can come to this office when they have nowhere else to turn and immediately receive an emergency food package.  This service can be used up to once a month.  Last year, 365 YCP received 6,500 visits and helped to provide services for almost 13,000 people.  Additionally, 365 YCP works with clients to apply for benefits like Social Security and food stamps and refer them to other organizations that can help them. 
         YCP estimates that their investment in the community last year, through these programs, totaled roughly $1.1 million dollars.  This year, they hope to increase this number to two million dollars.  YCP is focused on balancing their food programs with their newly emerging services programs to alleviate both immediate and long-term hunger in NYC.
       Tomorrow, I return to YCP to observe the food pantry in action and speak with the director of development.  After lunch, I am heading to Westside Campaign Against Hunger.  More tomorrow on YCP's funding sources and pictures of the food bank!