City Harvest

Over 20 years ago, Food Council member Dana Cowin started our annual Share Lunch Fight Hunger campaign, knowing that if each of her co-workers donated their lunch money, they could make a big difference together. By participating in Share Lunch Fight Hunger this May 5-16, you can help City Harvest provide nutritious food to more than 12,000 New York City children and their families during the summer months, when access to school meals may become limited. Learn more and get started at cityharvest.org/sharelunch. #WeAreCityHarvest

We're celebrating our incredible volunteers for their dedication to providing food for New Yorkers in need. In the past year, 10,593 individual volunteers spent a total of 41,500 hours volunteering at 1,390 projects. This resulted in... 114,530+ NYC households served at Mobile Markets Nearly 430,000 pounds of farm-fresh food donations collected at the close of Greenmarkets in partnership with GrowNYC More than 2.2 million pounds of food repacked to be distributed to New Yorkers in need   We expressed our gratitude with an evening at Food Council member Marc Glosserman's Hill Country Barbecue Market! Many thanks to MUFG for their support. Learn how you can get involved: https://lnkd.in/dCn6nPAd #WeAreCityHarvest

Our CEO Jilly Stephens was quoted in a TIME article this week about the importance of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).    City Harvest's Policy Platform calls for strengthening and expanding government benefit programs so that all New Yorkers can feed themselves and their families. We will continue to advocate for New Yorkers while rescuing high-quality, nutritious food that would otherwise go to waste to help provide free food for those experiencing food insecurity. Read the article: https://lnkd.in/ebq-aaUb #WeAreCityHarvest

Share Lunch Fight Hunger returns May 5-16! Our annual corporate fundraising competition engages thousands of New Yorkers and dozens of companies to help provide food for NYC children in need during the summer months, when access to free school meals may become limited. Right now, 1 in 4 New York City children don’t always know where their next meal will come from. By donating $25—the cost of what you might spend on lunch—to City Harvest, you can help provide free nutritious food to 19 children and their families. Together, we can ensure that every child in NYC has access to the nutritious food they need to thrive. Rally your coworkers and friends and sign up a team today: https://lnkd.in/ehDUqcHD #WeAreCityHarvest

This month marks five years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. During the crisis, City Harvest rescued and delivered more than 300 million pounds of food—more than double the amount for the same period of time prior to the pandemic—for our fellow New Yorkers. The need has not gone away. The number of visits to NYC food pantries and soup kitchens is currently higher than the previous peak during the pandemic, and is increasing compared to last year, according to data from FeedNYC. City Harvest CEO Jilly Stephens shared with CBS New York that food insecurity in New York City "is a problem that was always big, has grown, and, unfortunately, is not subsiding." City Harvest is committed to feeding all of our neighbors in need—one day, one meal, one New Yorker at a time. Learn more about City Harvest: www.cityharvest.org #WeAreCityHarvest

City Harvest is in Washington, D.C., advocating to protect federal programs that help ensure New Yorkers can put food on the table. Meanwhile, you can take action in New York—tell your representatives to safeguard state programs that ensure food access for all New Yorkers by visiting https://p2a.co/MWjug2g #WeAreCityHarvest

Follow along with our Policy and Advocacy team during their recent visit to the State Capitol alongside Food Bank For New York City, United Way of New York City, and more than 100 advocates from our partner food pantries.   We attended more than 30 meetings with government leaders to call for a state budget that ensures affordable access to food, childcare, and housing for New Yorkers in our city and across the state. Take action at https://p2a.co/MWjug2g. #WeAreCityHarvest

Earlier this week, the House approved a budget that proposed significant cuts to vital, proven programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, that would have a devastating effect on the millions of New Yorkers and people across our country who are already struggling to cover basic costs.    SNAP is our nation’s most effective tool in fighting hunger. We are seeing a record number of New Yorkers depend on the food pantries and soup kitchens we serve to put meals on their tables, yet nonprofits alone already cannot provide enough to meet the need for food assistance. According to Feeding America, SNAP provides access to 9 meals for every meal that the charitable food system provides. SNAP is also a boon to local economies: Every $1 in SNAP benefits generates $1.50 in economic activity at neighborhood grocers and bodegas. The proposed cuts will make it even harder for children, seniors, and working New Yorkers to make ends meet.    As New Yorkers continue to grapple with rising costs of food, housing, and childcare, more and more families are struggling to put meals on the table—and the need for strong support systems has never been greater. City Harvest has long urged leaders at all levels of government to increase access to SNAP benefits and invest more in anti-hunger programs, including SNAP. We will continue to work with our partners and policymakers to safeguard and expand SNAP benefits so no one in our community goes hungry.

Right now, half of working-age households in New York City are struggling to make ends meet, according to the True Cost of Living report—that’s 3 million New Yorkers who do not make enough to cover the minimum cost of living in NYC, including basics like food, rent, and child care. The New York Times shared a list of crowdsourced ideas on how to address the affordability crisis, including suggestions from City Harvest CEO Jilly Stephens and Community Volunteer Gordon. Read the full article: https://lnkd.in/epM-FjxM #WeAreCityHarvest

The CEOs of City Harvest, Food Bank For New York City, and United Way of New York City, join together in response to Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2025 State of the State Address: