Yorkville Common Pantry

The needs that Emergency Food Providers face are many, and growing. Obesity, hunger and lack of food, lack of access to food and services, poor nutrition due to poverty, and poor dietary choices and decisions all make organizations like Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP) face some of the most basic, yet toughest, challenges facing New York City.

Heckscher grants support the YCP’s family pantry, which seeks to introduce and encourage the longer-term benefits of healthy eating by providing healthy food and nutritional education to children. YCP seeks to increase the measurable impact of healthy choices on children and families with several program enhancements, including the addition of a new Family Case Manager who works with families, and recruits others to assist with the acquisition of benefits and entitlements.

In 2011, 1,000 new children participated in the program. In response, YCP has expanded its nutrition education classes, experiential learning opportunities and fresh food pantry offerings accordingly. YCP provides supplemental food assistance to 7,000 households, including 3,800 children, for a total of 400,000 meals provided to youth. A majority of children participating in the program come from food impoverished neighborhoods considered to be “food deserts,” so the provision of increased access to free, nutritious food not readily available in their communities is crucial to the success of the program.