Yorkville Common Pantry

Responding to the economic crises, we studied programs that provided food to “newly poor” children and families resorting to the food programs to supplement their daily needs, and provided a substantial grant to Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP), Manhattan’s largest community-based food pantry designed to meet the needs of families with the highest incidence of obesity and diabetes by providing culturally-appropriate and nutritiously-balanced food. YCP’s Project Dignity provides food, shelter, hygiene and medical services.

Following our initial grant, we worked with YCP to develop a Nutrition Initiative for Children and families which provides funds to purchase 450,000 nutritious meals annually. 4,300 children will visit YCP 50,000 times and 85% or more now will become accustomed to having fresh produce in their diets, become more knowledgeable about using healthy recipes at home, resulting in healthy changes in their eating habits. The grant also allowed for the increase from 1 to 7 the number of monthly children’s nutrition classes, which have been successful with enrollment to capacity. Research indicates that exposure to nutritious foods reduces obesity and disease.