NYCCAH Works to Break the Cycle of Poverty

Did you know that one in seven New York City residents doesn't know where his or her next meal is coming from? Did you know that one in five New York City children goes to bed hungry every night?

A survey done by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) is getting the word out.

People tend to often connect the terms "hungry" and "unemployed" as being synonymous. However, in actuality a growing number of people who are forced to utilize kitchens and pantries in the city do work; they simply don't have enough income to purchase the necessary food their families need.

New York City is experiencing an increasing demand for emergency food services and a decreasing supply of resources which forces many to go hungry. It is not only the homeless or the unemployed who are facing hunger. A record number of the working poor and their children are finding themselves with empty cabinets and emptier stomachs. Soup kitchens and food pantries are there to fill this need.

According to Joel Berg, Executive Director of NYCCAH, "The fastest-growing populations at these agencies are working people and children." The public has been desensitized by the myth, perpetuated by the media, that most users of food banks and soup kitchens are lazy, undeserving, and inevitable. Berg considers the "lack of respect for poor people" to be one of the greatest challenge in the fight against hunger and poverty.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) represents New York City's more than 1,200 soup kitchens and food pantries. NYCCAH is an umbrella group for soup kitchens and food pantries citywide, most of which are small, faith-based, under-funded, and volunteer-staffed. NYCCAH provides technical assistance in advocacy and communications, benefits outreach, and leadership development work at no cost to these Emergency Food Providers (EFP) in all five boroughs. NYCCAH goes beyond helping these agencies meet the immediate food needs by focusing on developing greater long-term economic self-sufficiency to help more than one million low-income, food-insecure New Yorkers move "beyond the soup kitchen."

NYCCAH programs are dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty that cultivates widespread hunger and malnutrition. The Coalition helps these agencies obtain more food, staff, volunteers and funding resources by addressing the root causes of this increase in hunger and poverty. The Coalition has earned a national reputation for trailblazing effective new ways for agencies to build capacity and expand programming, advocate for improved governmental and economic policies that address the underlying causes of hunger, ensure that low-income families receive the government nutrition and tax benefits to which they are entitled, and coordinate services with each other.

The New York City Coalition Against Hunger is a well-deserved winner of the Harry Chapin Self Reliance Award (HCSRA) administered by Reinvesting In America (RIA). The HCSRA is awarded as a cash grant to outstanding grassroots organizations in the U.S. that have moved beyond charity to creating change in their communities. Winners are judged outstanding for their innovative and creative approaches to fighting domestic hunger and poverty by empowering people and building self-reliance. NYCCAH personifies self-reliance and community empowerment, two vital components for social change and justice.

NYCCAH will use its award to aid in the planning and implementation of their Farm Fresh Food Security, Nutrition Improvement and Community Empowerment Project in West Harlem and two other low-income communities in the city currently plagued with high rates of household hunger/food insecurity, malnutrition and poverty. This innovative effort will enable charitable food pantries and soup kitchens to increase both the amount of fresh produce consumed by families in poverty and the income of local small and medium-sized farmers, with a particular emphasis on new and minority farmers, all while promoting collective responses that stress individual self-sufficiency and community empowerment.

When asked where he sees NYCCAH in five years, Berg simply said "In a perfect world…we would cease to exist." He did stress "perfect world," but perhaps this goal can be met if organizations understand and act upon the respect for poor peoples' dignity, self-sufficiency and government accountability like NYCCAH does. A world in which people are guaranteed the right of food and the hunger epidemic dwindles into a nightmare of a past. Lets settle for a better world instead of a perfect one.