2009 Annual Hunger Survey

NYC Hunger Catastrophe Avoided (For Now) Soaring Demand at Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens CounterBalanced by Food Stamps Surge and Extra Recovery Bill Funding

ANNUAL HUNGER SURVEY New York City Coalition Against Hunger - November 2009

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table of contents Executive Summary……………………………..…………………………………………..…….3 Survey Methodology……………………..………………………………..…………………..…..7 City-wide Findings…….…………………………………………………………………………....9 Year-to-Year Comparisons…….…………………………..…………………………………….10 Message From the Executive Director…..………………………….…………………….…....11 Borough Specific Findings………………………………………………………………………12 Findings on Volunteer Needs……………………………………………………………..…….18 Appendix 1 – Selected Quotes From Emergency Food Providers ………………….……..19 Appendix 2 – 2006 Survey Letter & Questionnaire …………………………………………..23 Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………32

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Executive Summary In 2009, New York City’s emergency food providers (food pantries, soup kitchens, and brown bag programs) reported a 20.8 percent increase in need for their services, with the fastest growth in demand from families with children. While this comes as no surprise, given that the demand at such agencies has been rising for years and has only been accelerated by the recession, this years findings also show something new: a renewed potential to alleviate hunger through government action.

As need increased dramatically, for the first time in years, this survey showed a positive trend: although the economy continued to plummet in 2009 and increasing numbers of New Yorkers relied on soup kitchens and food pantries for help, such agencies had somewhat more ability to meet the growing demand than previous years, as Chart 2 shows. This is mostly due to increasing participation in the SNAP/ Food Stamp Program and a surge in anti-hunger funding from the federal recovery bill.

Chart 1

percentage of agencies forced Chart 1: Percentage of Agencies Forced to Ration to Food or ration food turnAway people away Turnor People 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

The federal government provided much-needed support. Thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), otherwise known as the federal stimulus package or recovery bill, emergency food providers were able to combat the growing demand for food better than in previous years. Chart 3 shows that 20.3 percent fewer agencies reported a decrease in government food and funding. Fifty-one percent of survey respondents reported an increase in the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) federal funding, and in terms of city funding, 48.4 percent of survey respondents reported increased funding through Emergency Food Assistance Program (EFAP).

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Percentage of Agencies Able to Meed Demand for Food

Percentage of agencies able to meet demand for food 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2006

2007

2008

2009

Year

Chart 2

Percentage of Agencies Reporting Decreased agencies reporting decreased Government Food and Funding government food and funding

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% Percentage 20% 10% 0% 2006

2007

2008

2009

Year

Chart 3

Agencies Reportingreporting a Change in a FEMA Federal agencies change in Fema federal Emergency Food and Shelter Funding emergency food and shelter funding 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Chart 4

Increase

Decrease

No Change

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Funding for New York City in the Federal FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) rose from $4,581,417 last year to $7,492,125 this year of which $2,340,980 was from the recovery bill. That equaled a 64 percent increase in one year. Survey respondents also noted this increase in EFSP funding, as shown in Chart 4: 59.4 percent reporting an increase in funding, and an additional 25 percent reporting the same amount funding, greatly assisted feeding agencies.

State funding stayed relatively stable, and, because the New York City Council rejected the proposals of Mayor Mike Bloomberg to decrease City funding for pantries and kitchens, City funding stayed stable too. Thus, although City and State funding didn’t increase, because federal funding increased so dramatically, overall government food and support to emergency food providers increased significantly.

As a result, in 2009, fewer emergency food providers (55.3 percent) reported not having enough food to meet demand, down from 68.8 percent in 2008. Previous years’ studies have reported increased demand coupled with cuts in government funding, but this year was different. While it is still unacceptable that more than half of feeding agencies lacked sufficient food, the situation clearly would have been far worse without the influx of federal money and food.

Not only did the government assist agencies through stimulus funding for emergency food, increases in the federal Food Stamp Program (recently renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP), significantly relieved the further strain that pantries and kitchens would have faced had SNAP funding not increased. The recovery bill also increased benefits for families participating in SNAP/food stamps, thereby encouraging more people to apply.

Additionally, the regular SNAP/food stamp program is designed as a counter-cyclical entitlement that is supposed to rise in difficult economic conditions, which is exactly what happened between 2008 and 2009, as the unemployment rate in New York City rose by 71 percent. Between September 2008 and September 2009, participation in the SNAP/ food stamp program rose from 1,297,108 to 1,583,581(a 22 percent increase) demonstrating that the program was working exactly as designed.

As a consequence of both the hike in the number of participants and the increased average benefits due to the recovery bill, the federal government will spend at least an extra $568 million SNAP/food stamp benefit dollars in New York City this year, on top of $2.1 billion it was already slated to spend.

Without the more than $2.6 billion in federal SNAP/food stamp spending this year in New York City – as well as the tens of millions spent funding pantries and kitchens, school meals, and the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program – New Yorkers really would be starving in this downturn.

Raising wages and maximizing participation in federal nutrition programs are the best long-term solutions to ending dependence on food charity. At the same time, such federal

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spending is proven to add a significant boost to the economy. The fights to end hunger and the fights to end poverty are intertwined - without proper nourishment, obtaining and keeping jobs as well as concentrating in school becomes more difficult. Living-wage jobs and education are the best tools in combating poverty. Food stamp/SNAP benefits assist people in obtaining nutritious food as they attempt to go to school and find stable jobs that will eventually help them move beyond the soup kitchen to self-sufficiency.

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Survey Methodology The 2009 survey questionnaire (Appendix 2) was originally mailed to a collective list of 1,149 agencies in New York City believed to run soup kitchens, food pantries, and/or some sort of emergency food program (EFP). This list was created through a combination of member agency rosters maintained by the Food Bank for NYC and City Harvest, and recipients of the EFAP/HPNAP funding streams.

Following the mailing, the NYC Coalition Against Hunger made follow-up visits, phone calls and faxed/emailed reminders to as many agencies as possible in order to solicit responses.

Agencies were encouraged to either mail/fax the paper survey to the Coalition or complete the survey online using Survey Monkey, a web-based data collection service. In this sense, sampling was only partly random, as agencies with a preexisting relationship with the Coalition received more encouragement to complete the survey. However, the breadth of survey responses, consistency of respondent characteristics with previous surveys done by the Coalition and other organizations, and number of responses from agencies with no preexisting relationship to the Coalition assured us that this sample was representative.

All paper surveys were also entered online using Survey Monkey by Coalition staff and volunteers. In total, 287 agencies returned surveys. Responding agencies who do not offer food to the public (either by walk-in or referral) were removed from subsequent analysis, leaving 256 usable surveys. Not all percentages total exactly 100 percent due to rounding.

Overall Respondent Characteristics

(Unless otherwise noted, percentages are calculated from the response to a particular question, not the overall response rate.)

The overall analyzed response rate for this survey was 287 agencies out of a list of 1,149 agencies, or 24.9 percent.

Response rates within boroughs:

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Survey Methodology Respondents by type of program:

75.5% of respondents identified themselves as faith-based, religiously affiliated, or physically housed in a religious institution.

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2009 City-wide survey results of agencies surveyed do not distribute enough food to meet their current de» 55.3% mand, down from 68.8% last year. of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in » 90.4% the last months. 58.4% said this number increased “greatly.” the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest » Ofgrowth was seen among families with children. of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of families » 81.1% with children over the last 12 months (versus 6.5% reporting a decrease, and 8.0% reporting no change). of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of seniors » 68.3% over the last 12 months (versus 6.3% reporting a decrease, and 21.0% reporting no change). of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of working » 56.9% people over the last 12 months (versus 7.1% reporting a decrease, and 14.1% reporting no change). of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the » 83.8% next six months. 44.7% of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.” of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money » 52.0% in the last 12 months (vs. 16.2% reporting no change, and 27.8% reporting an increase). of respondents reported using their own personal money “often,” “always,” or » 54.5% “sometimes” to support their feeding programs. it is by definition impossible to fully count the number of times people were » While not served because they were turned away, the Coalition’s rough estimate, based on survey responses, indicates that 13.9 % fewer people were turned-away in 2008 than in 2009.

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year-to-year comparisons

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message from the executive director This year’s survey covers a challenging year for New York City, and the nation, as we’ve seen unemployment skyrocket and the economy worsen. As food pantries and soup kitchens reported longer lines and more demand for their services, they also reported a fascinating trend: as the economy plummeted, the federal government took note of their increased need and provided additional assistance.

Fewer pantries reported not having enough food to meet demand this year. In 2009, 55.5 percent of agencies reported not having enough food, which is a drop of 13.1 percent from the 68.6 percent of agencies that reported this over the same period last year. We also found that fewer agencies reported turning clients away or rationing food this year than in the last year. While there is still extensive work to be done, our ability as a nation to recognize that increased need should be a sign of hope. If we can stay committed to this need, through additional policy changes we as a nation can end hunger entirely. I have included the phrase “For Now” in the title of this survey to emphasize that to keep the hunger crisis from worsening the federal government must renew stimulus recovery funds.

There are several other positive developments under way to end hunger: President Obama has committed to ending child hunger by 2015, and in 2010 we will see the passage of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which governs the funding and policies around school meals, the Women, Infants, and Children program, as well as several other important federal nutrition programs. As a nation we need to see that the President fulfills his commitment, and we need to take action to encourage our legislators to support universal school meals, in-classroom breakfasts, and more funding for nutritious and more appealing food in school meals in the upcoming Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act. We, as Americans, also need to change our attitude towards volunteerism—instead of donating cans around the holidays, we need to be offering our skilled services to pantries and soup kitchens year round. While it may be gratifying to serve soup for a morning, it will do more good to help a pantry apply for a grant or develop a website. Many pantries and soup kitchens are volunteer-run, and they are in dire need of long-term skilled volunteers.

I hope this survey and the comments we’ve included from emergency food providers encourages you to take action.

Sincerely,

Joel Berg, Executive Director

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2009 borough comparisons Chart 5

C hart 3: Agenc ies R eporting Inc reas ed Demand by B orough

agencies reporting increased demand by borough

100% 95% 90% 85% 80% 75% The Bronx

Brooklyn

Manhattan B o ro u gh

Queens

Staten Island

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bronx survey responses “In our neighborhood, there is an insatiable demand for food.

Food insecurity is a significant problem. Even though we have increased tremendously the amount of people we serve, there continues to be people who are turned away.”

- Paul Block, Pastor, Transfiguration Food Pantry, Bronx

Among Bronx respondents to our survey: • 95.6% of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in the last 12 months. 57.8% said this number increased “greatly.”

• Of the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest growth was seen among families with children (43.6%) and immigrants (41.7%).

• 79.5% of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the next six months. 46.2% of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.”

• 43.4% of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money in the last 12 months (and 20% reported no change).

• 51.7% of responding agencies reported receiving less overall food and money in the last 12 months (and 13.8% reported no change).

• 66.7% of respondents reported being unable to distribute enough food to meet current demand.

• 58.1% of responding agencies reported having to turn away hungry New Yorkers, cut portion sizes and/or cut hours of operation in 2009.

• 20.6% of respondents reported using their own personal money “often” or “always” to support their feeding programs (47.1% do this “sometimes,” “often” or “always”).

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brooklyn survey responses “There is an increase in the demand of food items. There is also a need for fresh vegetables so that... adequate nutrition can be provided.”

- Bruce Johnson, Assistant Director, Ebenezer Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Brooklyn

Among Brooklyn respondents to our survey: • 89.1% of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in the last 12 months. 60.3% said this number increased “greatly.”

• Of the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest growth was seen among families with children (58.7%),and senior citizens (45.2%).

• 82.8% of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the next six months. 48.3% of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.”

• 53.7% of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money in the last 12 months (and 20.4% reported no change).

• 58.0% of responding agencies reported receiving less overall food and money in the last 12 months (and 12.0% reported no change).

• 59.2% of respondents reported being unable to distribute enough food to meet current demand.

• 49.3% of responding agencies reported having to turn away hungry New Yorkers, cut portion sizes and/or cut hours of operation in 2009.

• 31.0% of respondents reported using their own personal money “often” or “always” to support their feeding programs (67.2% do this “sometimes,” “often” or “always”).

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manhattan survey responses “Like everyone, we’ve been feeling the effects of the recession. The first six months of 2009 saw a 14% increase in food pantry customers over the same period in 2008. We have heard countless stories of people losing jobs, having their hours cut, having to get by on less when they were already stretched. And at the same time, our agency has seen a loss of revenue - so we’re meeting a greater demand with fewer resources.”

- Lucia Russett, Director of Advocacy/Food Pantry, Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health

Among Manhattan respondents to our survey: • 84.5% of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in the last 12 months. 39.7% said this number increased “greatly.”

• Of the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest growth was seen among homeless people (24.4%) and families with children (21.3%).

• 82.0% of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the next six months. 32.0% of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.”

• 57.1% of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money in the last 12 months (and 11.9% reported no change).

• 45.0% of responding agencies reported receiving less overall food and money in the last 12 months (and 7.5% reported no change).

• 39.7% of respondents reported being unable to distribute enough food to meet current demand.

• 35.8% of responding agencies reported having to turn away hungry New Yorkers, cut portion sizes and/or cut hours of operation in 2009.

• 19.6% of respondents reported using their own personal money “often” or “always” to support their feeding programs (47.9% do this “sometimes,” “often” or “always”).

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staten island survey responses “St. Edward Food Pantry is grateful for all the support given to us. However, as the number of clients to come to us rises, the need for more funding increases.”

- Sister Vincent Marie Wilson, FHM, Executive Director, St. Edward Food Pantry, Staten Island

Among Staten Island respondents to our survey: • 100% of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in the last 12 months. 100% said this number increased “greatly.”

• Of the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest growth was seen among families with children (62.5%) and immigrants (50.0%).

• 100% of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the next six months. 62.5% of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.”

• 62.5% of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money in the last 12 months (and 0% reported no change).

• 50.0% of responding agencies reported receiving less overall food and money in the last 12 months (and 0% reported no change).

• 40% of respondents reported being unable to distribute enough food to meet current demand.

• 12.5% of responding agencies reported having to turn away hungry New Yorkers, cut portion sizes and/or cut hours of operation in 2009.

• 66.6% of respondents reported using their own personal money “often” or “always” to support their feeding programs.

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queens survey responses “Due to the recession we do need more food. Many people are telling us they lost their jobs. Some do not make enough money to buy food because of their high rents/medical bills. They just do not make enough to supply all their needs. And we do not have enough food to put in the grocery bags for 350-400 people a week.”

- Griselle R. Torres, Program Coordinator, Evangelical Church Christ is the Light, Inc., Queens

Among Queens respondents to our survey: • 93.4% of responding agencies reported feeding an increased number of people in the last 12 months. 71.7% said this number increased “greatly.”

• Of the populations that increased “greatly” at responding agencies, the fastest growth was seen among families with children (45.5%) and senior citizens (30.4%).

• 88.1% of responding agencies believe that their need will continue to increase in the next six months. 50.0 % of responding agencies believe it will increase “greatly.”

• 48.7% of responding agencies reported receiving less government food and money in the last 12 months (and 15.4% reported no change).

• 51.3% of responding agencies reported receiving less overall food and money in the last 12 months (and 12.8% reported no change).

• 60.4% of respondents reported being unable to distribute enough food to meet current demand.

• 57.1% of responding agencies reported having to turn away hungry New Yorkers, cut portion sizes and/or cut hours of operation in 2009.

• 16.6% of respondents reported using their own personal money “often” or “always” to support their feeding programs (47.6% do this “sometimes,” “often” or “always”).

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findings on volunteer needs Chart 6

Cvolunteer hart 4: V olunteer Needs needs Need only uns killed volunteers , 8.7%

Do not need volunteers , 47.3%

Need s killed volunteers , 44.0%

As the holidays approach, people are thinking about ways to assist the more than 1.3 million low income New Yorkers forced to use soup kitchens and food pantries to feed themselves and their families. There is always a surge in people who want to volunteer in soup kitchens and food pantries around the holidays, but this survey found that emergency food providers really need long-term skills-based volunteers. Only 8.7 percent of these agencies need only unskilled volunteers to do things such as serve soup and work in the pantry.

This is not to say that volunteerism is not necessary- Chart 6 shows that nearly half (44%) of responding agencies reported needing long-term skilled volunteers. The most common needs reported on our survey are fundraising, computer help and web design. If more New Yorkers volunteered their time and their skills year round, soup kitchens and food pantries would be better equipped to help the hungry in New York.

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Appendix 1: Selected quotes from survey respondents Bronx “In our neighborhood, there is an insatiable demand for food. Food insecurity is a significant problem. Even though we have increased tremendously the amount of people we serve, there continues to be people who are turned away.”

- Paul Block, Pastor, Transfiguration Food Pantry, Bronx

“We all need to hang in there for the benefit of the generations to come. Everyone has a right to eat.”

- Vanessa Persaud-Robert, Pantry Manager, Bronx Full Gospel Tabernacle Food Pantry

Brooklyn “We the volunteers of St. Benedict’s Pantry / St. Philip’s Church feel privileged to server the people in need in our community. This is one of our Church’s outreach programs and has been constant in our mission since January 1988. The workshops given by the different agencies are extremely informative and helpful to improve our food program. There is no doubt with God’s help we can continue.”

- Evelyn Rainford, Program Coordinator, St. Benedict’s Pantry / St. Philip’s Church

“In hope of receiving funding from other vendors, when we apply we are often turned down. How can we receive more funding for our food pantry, or what qualifies us for other agencies? United Way and Feed the Children have been a help to us. When others say we are too small. No group should be too small or big when there is a hunger crisis.”

- Univeral Love Peace & Joy Church of God Inc.

“There is an increase of volunteer services that are temporary. Many persons who are jobless and are looking for employment volunteer at our organization once a week.

We know that as soon as they find employment they will be gone. Our donations have decreased 50%. We have not lost significant donors, but their donation amounts have decreased.”

- Sister Mary A. Maloney, Director/Pesident, Park Slope Christian Help, INC.

“Our volunteers are members of our church. They are very faithful in giving weekly assistance in our food pantry. We could not function without them. At the present time we have enough volunteers working in our food pantry.”

Aileen Halleran, Pastoral Associate, Queen of All Saints Fort Greene Food Pantry

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“There is an increase in the demand of food items. There is also a need for fresh vegetables so that an adequate nutrition can be provided.”

- Bruce Johnson, Assistant Director, Ebenezer Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Brooklyn

“Vital to capacity building to have volunteers with advanced professional tasks!”

- Debbie Santiago, Executive Director, Salt and Sea Mission, Brooklyn

“Due to decreased funding in 2009, we are facing grave financial challenges which we are trying to overcome through local fund raising efforts. Also, we plan to seek an increased FEMA EFSP grant, as well as to explore other grant options so that we can maintain our current level of service.”

- Betty Flynn, Coordinator, St. Augustine Helping Hands Food Pantry, Brooklyn

“We are reliant on the TEFAP program and there’s not much food for our clients. We do not have a grant this year and it is difficult to get meats from TEFAP.” - Sharmin Prince, Program Director, Volunteers of America- East New York Residence Brooklyn

“A full-time intern will be greatly appreciated and needed to help with administration.”

- Thomas Neve, Executive Director, Reaching-Out Community Service, Inc., Brooklyn

“We don’t get enough kosher products from city agencies.”

- Shimon Herz, Director, Shalom Senior Center, Brooklyn

Manhattan “Like everyone, we’ve been feeling the effects of the recession. The first six months of 2009 saw a 14% increase in food pantry customers over the same period in 2008.

We have heard countless stories of people losing jobs, having their hours cut, having to get by on less when they were already stretched. And at the same time, our agency has seen a loss of revenue - so we’re meeting a greater demand with fewer resources.”

- Lucia Russett, Director of Advocacy/Food Pantry, Little Sisters of the Assumption Family Health Service

“We were awarded a state grant from our Senator which was originally supposed to arrive in September. We have been told that it is now scheduled to arrive in March of 2010. In the meantime, we are scrambling for funding.”

- Michael Phillips, Rector, Holy Trinity Neighborhood Center, Manhattan

“We would like to receive in our orders more rice, beans and pasta because most that come to our pantry are Asians and Hispanics.”

- Juan E. Rosa (Johnny), Executive Director, Primitive Christian Church, Manhattan

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“We are at our limits serving an ever growing demand. If we do not get more food resources we will have to start turning people away.”

- Ismael Trinidad, Food Pantry Coordinator, World Wide Missionary Movement Inc. Food Pantry Program, Manhattan

“We have not had to turn anyone away because we use every resource possible to provide food. However, this often means that instead of paying staff, we purchase food. There is still hardly any funding for those who actually do the work to bring hunger relief.”

- Marian Hutchins, Director, Community Resources and Development, The Father’s Heart Ministries, Inc., Manhattan

“We received a lot of extra government funding this year due to the stimulus packages. In fact, we were offered too much funding, to the point where we had to turn some down because we didn’t have the capacity to store so much food before the special grant cutoff date. This did not seem like the best use of the funds. It would have been better if they had been budgeted over a longer period of time so that in several years, when the normal funding presumably drops back to baseline levels, we’d have some extra to play with.”

- Cassandra Agredo, Director of Outreach, Church of St. Francis Xavier, Manhattan

Queens “We’d prefer more fresh food than canned. Rice and cereal is better than canned foods. We want to make the community more healthy.”

Janet Gibbs, Director, Linden SDA Church, Queens

“Without food/grants from NYC Food Bank we could not continue serve people as a food pantry.”

- Sister Christine Cusati, Director of Parish outreach, Our Lady of Lourdes Food Pantry, Queens

“Due to the recession we do need more food. Many people are telling us they lost their jobs. Some do not make enough money to buy food because of their high rents/ medical bills. They just do not make enough to supply all their needs. And we do not have enough food to put in the grocery bags for 350-400 people a week.”

- Griselle R. Torres, Program Coordinator, Evangelical Church Christ is the Light, Inc., Queens

“During this year 2009 we are seeing a lot more low income working people and people of Chinese Mexican descent receiving food. We now have to serve more people with less food.”

- Jannett Taylor, Director Administrative Support Services/Pantry Coordinator Steinway Pantry/Steinway Child & Family Services, Inc., Queens

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“Although our program has seen a sharp increase in clients, we have received generous food donations from our donors. Unfortunately, the donations do not include items needed to distribute (bags) and serve (plates, cups, etc.) food. There is always a lack of funds to hire salaried individuals to run/operate these programs. Grants are rarely available to small organizations.”

- Maxine Harrison-Gallmon, Food Program Coordinator, Bethesda Missionary Baptist Church, Queens

“We have recently introduced a low-cost food purchasing program called SHARE to meet the needs of people who just need to save some money. There are many circumstances where people are just getting by, but are embarrassed to come to our pantry. We’re trying to find a comfortable program for everyone’s situation.”

- Alberta Mendenhall, Reverend, Director of Ministry and Mission, First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens

Staten Island “St. Edward Food Pantry is grateful for all the support given to us. However, as the number of clients to come to us rises, the need for more funding increases.”

- Sister Vincent Marie Wilson, FHM, Executive Director, St. Edward Food Pantry, Staten Island

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

Dear Emergency Food Provider: How does filling-out the New York City Coalition Against Hunger’s (NYCCAH’s) annual survey concretely help fight hunger? Three ways: 1) It helps us make the case to both private and government funders to increase donations to organizations like yours.

2) It enables us to obtain more media attention to the problem of hunger.

3) It boosts our efforts to convince elected officials and business leaders to enact governmental and economic policies to reduce hunger and poverty.

Last year – with your help – we collected surveys from over 300 soup kitchens and food pantries citywide. As a result, your continued struggle to feed your neighbors received coverage from almost every major television station and newspaper, and obtained increased attention from many elected officials.

Your participation in this survey is vital! Attached here is NYCCAH’s annual hunger survey. As always, these surveys include questions about your program and the customers/clients you serve. All your information will be kept confidential and anonymous. Best of all, if you have an Internet connection, you can quickly and conveniently complete the survey online at www.nyccah.org/survey.

If you prefer to complete the paper survey, please return it to the person who gave it to you, or fax it to us at (212) 825-0267 or mail it to: NYCCAH, 16 Beaver Street, 3rd Floor, New York, New York 10004. The deadline for responding is Friday, October 23rd.

If you have any questions or would like someone to assist you in completing the survey, please call us at 212-825-0028 x202. If you have already received and completed this survey, thank you. Remember, information is power. Together, we can help your clients get that power.

Sincerely,

Joel Berg Executive Director

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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Appendix 2: Survey letter & questionnaire

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acknowledgements First and foremost, we thank the hundreds of soup kitchens and food pantries that took great care and time to answer our survey.

The Coalition Against Hunger is especially grateful to volunteers who put in long hours entering and editing this data:

Linda De Jesus

Henry Park A very special thanks to the Coalition Against Hunger’s 2009-2010 AmeriCorps*VISTA Team, without whom this survey work would not have occurred:

Lily Acunzo Elizabeth Broderick

Josh Ankerberg Krystle Glass

Marissa Arterberry David Kam

Heidi Binder-Vitti Robyn Palmer

Karl Bradley Joanne Puleo

Ari Briski Chris Wilkins This report features survey, city and federal data compiled by staff at the NYC Coalition Against Hunger:

Joel Berg, Executive Director

Heidi Binder-Vitti, Research VISTA

Kerry Birnbach, Interfaith Voices Against Hunger Coordinator

Carrette Perkins, Director of Programs

Reggie Miller, VISTA Coordinator Board of Directors Daniel B. Ripps (Chair), The Development Resource Group, Inc. Maureen F. Sheehan (Secretary), Part Of The Solution (P.O.T.S.) Jeffrey N. Nichols, MD (Treasurer), Cabrini Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation Timothy Brosnan, Moody’s Investors Service Bisi Iderabdullah, IMANI HOUSE, Inc. Lewis B. Straus, USDA Food and Nutrition Service (Retired)

New York City Coalition Against Hunger 16 Beaver Street, 3rd Floor New York, New York, 10004 Tel. (212) 825-0028 Fax (212) 825-0267 Website: www.nyccah.org