Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

Food Bank for New York City

Food Bank for New York City

  • 'No New Yorker Goes Hungry': De Blasio Announces Next Steps to Combat Food Emergency

    hunger food pantry

    De Blasio visits a food pantry in Brooklyn (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)


    As the coronavirus crisis was unfolding in New York City last month, Mayor Bill de Blasio named his sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, as the new “food czar” to lead the implementation of a massive effort to ensure New Yorkers don’t go hungry. With the city already home to over a million “food insecure” people, the scale of the need accelerated quickly as hundreds of thousands of New

    ...
  • De Blasio Names 'Food Czar' to Combat Impending Hunger Crisis with 'Mobilization We've Never Seen Before'

    action network mayor

    Mayor de Blasio serves food (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)


    As the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has spread in New York, people have begun buying food off the shelves of local supermarkets to prepare for prolonged periods of isolation in the face of the virus. Public schools and senior centers are closing, many of which provide vulnerable New York City residents with food and meals, and tens of thousands of people appear to have already been laid off from their jobs, all leaving New Yorkers increasingly worried about food

    ...
  • 1.2 Million ‘Food Insecure’ New Yorkers and Added Strains on Emergency Providers Trying to Keep Up

    brannan cm food

    (photo: New York City Council)


    Food insecurity and hunger, which impact more than one million New Yorkers, don’t exist in a silo; instead, they are often connected to other challenges, like housing, health care, immigration status, domestic violence, and more.

    A new report from the Food Bank For New York City released at the end of last week outlines those intersecting challenges, detailing how the city’s widening wealth gap and rising costs of living, among other trends and hardships many experience, are putting an enormous strain on millions of city

    ...
  • The Woman to Woman Campaign

    margrouse twitter

    Donating feminine hygiene supplies through Food Bank (photo via @FoodBank4NYC)


    The nearly one million women and girls living below the federal poverty level in New York City are often forced to make impossible sacrifices when it comes to their basic needs. Limited budgets mean having to choose between purchasing essentials, like feminine care and household products, and paying for other necessities, like rent and food. 

    The cost of these feminine care products adds up. On average, women between the ages of 12 and 54 buy approximately 250 feminine

    ...