“Resting. We are Resting Now.
Eyes Closed. Feet Together.
Our Hands are STILL.
Resting. We are Resting Now.”
These were the words said everyday at naptime by one of my kindergarten teachers, Miss Williams. There I lay during that hour on my red and blue mat. It was my favorite time of the day. Not because I EVER went to sleep…I didn’t. It was my favorite because of Miss William’s little speech said to us over and over again. She would often walk over to me and rub my back as if to say, It’s time to rest, Maggie. But even that thrilled me too much to be able to sleep. You see, to me Miss Williams was the first brown fairy princess…way before Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog.” In my 6-year-old mind, Miss Williams was Cinderella and teaching in Jackson, Mississippi was merely her day job. She was as pretty as the women in my family, but still different. Her voice was light. She was incredibly sweet, almost like a little girl herself. Being from a family of alpha females, I’ll admit that I was mildly obsessed with this figure and style that I’d never known, yet deeply adored.
Since learning of the horrific events in Newtown, Connecticut I have thought of Miss Williams and my other kindergarten teacher, Miss Wall, constantly. They were the first two women that I recall spending great time with who didn’t share my last name. I remember the safety and comfort my classmates and I felt whenever we saw their faces. I also remember that on my first day Miss Wall complimented the braids my aunt had double twisted for me. I was so proud of those braids. All these years later, to still remember the moment a person noticed the detail that made up a 6-year-old’s world is proof positive of how special teachers are.
Our country is reeling at the great devastation that has rocked Newtown, Connecticut. Across the country people are grappling with the discovery of teachers being on the front lines and what that means. Should they be outfitted with guns? Bulletproof vests? Is the answer bulletproof backpacks? So many questions for a problem that baffles the core of all of us. I won't pretend to know the answer, but I know what the reality involves.
Teachers have always been on the front lines. They are the primary witnesses to crimes against children every day. They see the reality of poverty and hurt in the form of hunger, no coats during winter, and a lack of book bags, school supplies and so many other items that most of us take for granted. The teachers who unfortunately lost their lives in the tragic events in Newtown are heroes. They’re being called heroes because they ran toward harm, attempting to shield children from the wretched ugliness that entered their world. Where I will disagree with the majority is when their heroism began. I believe that well before last Friday they, like teachers doing a yeoman's job in Bedford Stuyvesant and the South Bronx, were already heroes. Teachers in the poorest communities of our city commit their lives to shielding and protecting children from the ugliness that too often makes up their worlds. The strength of the Food Bank's CookShop program, which serves 40,000 children, relies completely on the resilience and commitment of teachers. It’s their creativity that enables them to find ways to incorporate nutrition education into their curricula, ensuring that our city's neediest children get more of what they need. We certainly wouldn’t have our 11 campus pantries in schools today without the commitment and dedication of teachers and school administrators.
My heart and mind have been fixated on the sense of peace and safety that’s been robbed from children, parents and teachers in classrooms across our country. I wonder if teachers know how much they mean to all of us and how much we owe them for the work they’ve put towards our past and future. If I could find Miss Williams or Miss Wall I would first thank them and then assure them with the following:
“Acting. We are ACTING now.
Eyes OPEN. Feet Positioned.
Our hands are READY.
ACTING. We are ACTING now.”
Margarette Purvis is the President and CEO of Food Bank For New York City. Follow her on Twitter at @FoodBank_Prez
Posted At: December 17, 2012 6:12 PM | Posted By: Four Eyes
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Volunteering
by Thomas Neve
The day after Hurricane Sandy, my staff and I brainstormed and came up with a plan to help people affected by the storm. Luckily, Reaching-Out Community Services (RCS) is far enough from the shore line that we weren’t impacted by the severity of Sandy and were able to respond immediately. But many other communities around us weren’t as fortunate. We had never experienced such a level of devastation this close to home, so we were winging it. First, we assisted Coney Island’s Councilman Dominick Recchia, who had set up a relief site, by providing him with a truckload of food and water from our pantry stock.
Then we turned to social media. It was the perfect tool to put the rest of our plan into action. We spread the word on Facebook and Twitter that we were setting up two tents on the corner of Neptune Avenue and West 33rd Street as a hurricane relief site, and we needed volunteers to prepare hot meals and bring water and supplies for distribution.
What I saw the next morning when I arrived at the site brought tears to my eyes. There were dozens of cars with people unloading sandwiches, soup, hot trays of ziti and backed beans, fruit, water and much more. It was a feast. All in all, we mobilized more than 200 volunteers who helped us distribute hot meals and supplies from the tents for two days. And they’ve been helping us every since.
We then secured a storage unit outside our facility to create a hurricane relief drop-off center, and we’ve also secured a space, with help from Community Board 11, where we store additional supplies. A large portion of the food we’ve received has come from Food Bank For New York City, which sent trucks and trailers full of products. The RCS staff and hundreds of volunteers loaded their own vehicles with food and delivered them to disaster sites in nearby areas. It was a convoy of cars, filled with people determined to help their neighbors in need.
This outreach is still in effect and will continue as long as it’s needed. With Food Bank’s help we are able to distribute goods to our closest neighbors in Coney Island and Brighton Beach, and also help people in Red Hook, Gerritsen Beach, Staten Island and the Rockaways.
We have visited some of the most harshly impacted areas. The residents had no electricity, water or heat; their personal possessions were destroyed; and some even lost their homes due to severe damage. We have witnessed their sadness and sense of futility, but through it all they continue to display a heartfelt gratitude about the supplies they receive from us, and a spirit of resilience and strength that I know will see them through the difficult months ahead.
Thomas Neve is the Executive Director of Reaching-Out Community Services in Brooklyn, a member of the Food Bank For New York City network.
Posted At: December 17, 2012 5:46 PM | Posted By: Four Eyes
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Volunteering
by Debbie Calderon
When you hear about disasters like Hurricane Katrina, you feel terrible. But many people don’t do anything to help if they’re not directly affected. And I’ll admit, I was one of them. Hurricane Sandy changed all that. It’s the reason I’m here in Queens today volunteering.
Although I live on Long Island, I’m still a New Yorker. The city is part of my extended community and Sandy hit home for me. I wanted to contribute, to make a difference, no matter how small. Being here is an opportunity for me to lend a hand to people whose lives have been turned upside down by this storm.
Earlier this morning I helped sort donated products and now I’m packing emergency pantry bags with non-perishable food, water and other supplies to give to families in need. It’s been a busy and hectic day, but the experience is much more rewarding than I ever imagined. It feels great to be able to give back, and I’ve met wonderful people who are here for the same reason as me—to help others.
This experience has given me a whole new perspective and has changed me on a very deep level. If another disaster happens in the future, I’ll think back to this moment and I’ll respond differently than I did in the past. I’ll volunteer or donate money—I’ll do something. The one thing I won’t do is sit on the sidelines feeling bad about what’s happened. I’m going to get involved and make a difference!
Debbie Calderon, 22, is a college student from Long Island who spent a day volunteering at the Community Church of the Nazarene in Far Rockaway, one of Food Bank For New York City’s partners for Hurricane Sandy relief.
Streets of Coney Island are now deserted post Sandy.
"Hours have passed and it seems like this line gets longer and longer". These are the words that I spoke to a colleague as we walked around a neighborhood and emergency pantry in Coney Island.
The community we visited is still without power, and the citizens who call this community home are lined up at food trucks and pantries to get much-needed food. When we visit communities impacted by Sandy, we visit our member agencies and others who could make great on-the-ground partners. Today, we learned that not only has our member lost their site due to flooding, today is their last day in the school that they've called home for the past three weeks. With the move will come a loss of the generators supplying the only source of indoor light that we've seen for blocks.
From a long lens you notice the darkness, the fact that NO stores are open for business and that lots of people are milling around. A closer view let's you hear children who are not happy that they have to use the public, portable toilets with the adjacent sinks...again. The short view shows you that the mothers milling about are dragging carts, trying to determine the location of the next service site. They're doing this because the lack of power and phone service means that charities don't have an ability to provide mass communication.
As we say good bye to the program's manager, I notice that the first and second sites have something major in common - the scent of MOLD is clear. I remember it from every home I entered in Biloxi and New Orleans when I worked on homes during Hurricane Katrina. I'm not the only one to smell it, but our members and the city of New York find themselves setting up where they can in order to serve those in need.
What's very clear is that people are so very grateful for the help, but they are also very tired. You can feel it when talking to them. I'm proud that the food being provided is from Food Bank, but I’m incredibly frustrated that we're still needed and that these families still have to go through this. To give these families a bit of a reprieve, we'll be sending buses here to take them to lunch and dinner on Wednesday, November 21, as part of the special “Our Table Is Yours” event for seniors and families throughout New York City who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. The event, hosted by Food Network, Cooking Channel and Southern Wine & Spirits of America, will benefit Food Bank For New York City’s ongoing emergency response efforts in the wake of Sandy.
While my frustration and that of our supporters is real, we're also comforted by knowing that we can do anything that reminds families that they are cared for and that people are thinking about them. The view from where I sit allows me to see people operating at their very best. Ensuring that the Food Bank plays any part of that makes me feel incredibly blessed.
Margarette Purvis is the President and CEO of Food Bank For New York City. Follow her on Twitter at @FoodBank_Prez
On Monday, November 5, one week after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Northeast, Food Bank For New York City CEO Margarette Purvis showed her appreciation to volunteers at Food Bank’s Food Distribution Center in the Bronx. As men and women of all ages listened to Purvis thank them for donating their time, it was clear that they were proud to be there. The Food Bank warehouse regularly schedules groups of volunteers to lend a hand, but in the days following the storm, people simply walked in asking how they could help. On this day, more than 50 people, both walk-ins and scheduled volunteers, were on hand to repack cases of donated products into boxes earmarked for families: Baby wipes, diapers, toys, household cleaning products and more. About half the volunteers worked the morning shift, starting at 9:30 am, while the rest came in for the afternoon shift, wrapping up at 3:30 pm. By the next day, all the boxes they’d repacked had been distributed to sites throughout the city.
Perhaps you saw it on ABC 7 or News 12, or maybe you read about it in the Amsterdam News, AM New York or The New York Times. Word was out over the summer about the Food Bank’s Change One Thing food truck, which was on the streets of New York City for nearly 8 weeks during the summer.
The truck is part of our Change One Thing social marketing campaign, now in its third year. “Change One Thing” is a simple message for teens that emphasizes the ease of making healthy decisions. One small step each day is enough to make a difference. Each year, we’ve tried to cut through the barrage of unhealthy messages aimed at teens in New York, beginning with graffiti murals and radio-sponsored events. This summer, we decided to take another step, bringing an interactive message to teens where they hang out: pools, parks and summer events. The truck distributes small food items to taste, including low-calorie fruit pops, fresh fruit and water, as well as recipe books. It also houses a video game, designed specifically for this campaign. The game, a mix of nutrition-related trivia and quick food decisions, was a hit at all of our stops this summer, especially amongst those that won prizes for their skills!
I was always excited to visit the truck. We’re so used to seeing questionable representations of teens on the media, it’s nice to see real NYC teens gathered and engaged around something positive. The first day the truck was out in the city this year was in Brownsville, at the Betsy Head pool. As I showed up on the elevated 3 train, I was able to see a crowd gathering in front of the truck. Walking from the station to the park, I saw a steady stream of kids and teens walking away from the park with big smiles on their faces, and healthy snacks in hand. Our first day was an unmitigated success. Maybe you saw the truck at a community event, park or pool over the summer and were convinced to Change One Thing!
Federal spending cuts have slashed the single biggest source of emergency food in New York City. This year alone, food pantries and soup kitchens across the five boroughs lost a staggering 11 million meals, depriving those residents in most desperate need. The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) has been the mainstay of New York City’s emergency food network, constituting nearly half of the food that is distributed to low-income New Yorkers in past years. Food pantries and soup kitchens have told us they used to plan their meals around the food available in TEFAP; right now, their shelves are nearly bare.
Facing a shortfall of 11 million meals, emergency food providers are being forced to stretch resources and reduce services at a time of unprecedented need.
Nearly 3 million New York City residents have difficulty affording food. Households with children, the unemployed and low-income New Yorkers are struggling the most. Those 11 million meals could have gone to children, seniors and others in need – instead, food pantries and soup kitchens are coping with unprecedented need while their main source of food has dwindled.
Emergency food cuts have stricken communities in all five boroughs, with losses averaging 37 percent.
Bronx: 2.2 million meals lost
Brooklyn: 3.8 million meals lost
Manhattan: 1.4 million meals lost
Queens: 3.0 million meals lost
Staten Island: 0.4 million meals lost
You can help. There are two things you can do to help us out of this crisis:
Advocate. The Farm Bill, our nation’s key anti-hunger legislation, is up for renewal this year. Critical food resources like TEFAP and the food stamp program (SNAP) are at stake. Contact your representatives in Washington and tell them to help keep food on the table for our neighbors in need.
Donate. The long-term relief needed from the Farm Bill will take months or longer to materialize. Your donations will provide immediate help for those at risk of going hungry.
Triada Stampas works to inform government officials, policy makers and the general public about the needs of the city’s network of emergency food organizations and the more than 1.3 million people who rely on them; and to advance public policy that meets those needs.
The Food Resource Action Center (FRAC) recently reported that in 2011 participation in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP, also known as Summer Meals) was down, nationally, compared to previous years. Summer Meals provides universal breakfast and lunch to all children age 18 and under at schools and other sites in low-income neighborhoods during the summer. Although nationally there was a decrease in participation in the program, New York City saw a 3% increase. Part of this increase may be attributed to a city-wide collaboration where governmental agencies, community-based organizations and hunger advocates, including the Food Bank For New York City, implemented a more grassroots approach by canvassing low-income neighborhoods with localized Summer Meals outreach materials.
Summer Meals provides universal breakfast and lunch to all children age 18 and under at schools and other sites in low-income neighborhoods during the summer.
In addition to its annual outreach initiatives around Summer Meals (including recruiting member agencies to become distribution sites and on-the-ground outreach) last year, for the first time, the Food Bank For New York City distributed over 100,000 flyers to families with children throughout the city through our approximately 1,000 member agencies.
Although there was an increase in participation in the program, the numbers are still relatively low; participation increased to only 28% last year. This means that we have a long way to go. This year Food Bank is expanding its Summer Meals efforts and continues to work with the larger city-wide initiative to further increase participation in the program.
August 1st marked my 10 month anniversary at the Food Bank as CEO. I'm lucky enough to have experienced many high points to be sure but there was one that I've been anticipating that finally happened. My Granny was healthy enough to fly in from Mississippi for a visit. I felt like a gleeful little girl watching her roll up at the airport. I couldn't stop smiling as we hugged and kissed as soon as we saw each other. For me, my granny represents the most authentic and natural part of who I am. She is a microcosm of my upbringing, my family, my faith and all of the things I hold most dear. Her jokes, like those from my mom, are the ones that make me laugh the hardest. Her memory is not what it used to be but she never lets you forget how much she loves her family.
Margarette and Granny, at the Food Bank Warehouse
This is not my granny's first visit to the City. When Hurricane Katrina impacted our family, I flew her up here during my first stint at the Food Bank. She joined me for that year's Agency Conference. It was the perfect distraction. In a room filled with servant leaders, my granny felt surrounded by like spirits. In every room during the day she met ladies and gentlemen who had dedicated their lives to serving others. She was miles away from the Magnolia state and right at home.
During this trip I couldn't wait to reintroduce my granny to my new home. What would she think of my new apartment? Would she enjoy church service? How would she react to the buildings that she loved so much the last time? I knew I wanted to show her our newly renovated offices. Since I learned THRIFTYNESS from her as well I knew that she would get a kick out of the fact that we paid nothing for any of the changes. It was going to be a great day starting with a walk around Harlem.
As a Double Decker bus drove by I wondered if she remembered her time atop a similar bus wearing a handmade red cap. Instead she looked at me and said, "I think I would like to do something like that." She didn't remember. As we continued to walk and I became lost in my thoughts about my granny's memories she leaned towards me and said something I will never forget: "these people are hurting here."
My granny's eyes have seen many things in their many years of serving her. Some things she remembers, some things have been long since forgotten. As I crafted a list of "best things to show her" I walked away with the lesson that I must never forget. As long as the very worst of New York is everyday life for so many of our neighbors, our city will never see its true greatness. No amount of glitz, gloss or entertainment will change our visitor's questions about , "how are so many children, seniors and families allowed to struggle to put food on their tables?" Hunger and poverty are stains on a community requiring the collective and sustained elbow grease from all citizens to remove it. Turning our heads and pretending to not see it or worse still, questioning its reality in hopes of initiating an intellectual conversation as a solution can't be acceptable. Allowing any person to be hungry is like giving a green light to a world where basic human dignity is chosen by a coin toss.
I am proud to be a New Yorker again. There is no other city like this one. I will be more proud when my granny feels surrounded by more of her kind in places outside of conference rooms under an orange and white logo. Food Bank For New York City provides an excellent opportunity for regular New Yorkers to go beyond wanting to SEE better to joining an organization and mission in order to DO better. In the words of my granny, "Come on in...there's plenty of room."
Posted At: July 26, 2012 8:08 PM | Posted By: Food Bank Staff
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Food Bank Friends
By Mandy Kessler
Thrice-Cooked Bacon. That was probably the crowd favorite when a group of Food Bank staff enjoyed a communal dinner last week at Mission Chinese Food, the hip new LES outpost, recently imported from San Francisco, where SF foodies haven't been able to stop raving about it since it opened in 2010.
But in truth, it's pretty hard to choose. Everything we had from Kung Pao Pastrami, to Salt Cod Fried Rice, to Stir Fried Sweet Peas, was absolutely delicious. And the Chongqing Chicken Wings — what a tasty, albeit spicy, surprise! Ignoring the chili peppers heaped on top of them, they looked like typical chicken wings, but they sure didn't taste like it. Not at all greasy, just perfectly crispy on the outside, they were tender and flavor-packed inside.
As we had been forewarned by the hundreds of amazing reviews which have piled up since the restaurant opened in May, the food was hot. But for those of us who went in a little afraid of what that meant for our sometimes-weak palettes, we were pleasantly surprised. The spice didn't overwhelm the other flavors, and with plenty of components to balance the heat — like the amazing rice cakes that come with the Thrice-Cooked Bacon and, of course, delicious cold beer — the heat didn't last too long.
But the very best part of our meal? As we enjoyed delicious food and excellent company we knew that, simply by dining at Mission Chinese Food, we were helping provide nutritious meals to New Yorkers in need. Why? Because for every tasty entrée purchased at Mission Chinese Food's NYC location, the restaurant donates $0.75 to the Food Bank For New York City. Thanks to the amazing generosity of the restaurant leadership, including rising star Chef Danny Bowien, and to the efficient work of the Food Bank, where $1 donated helps provide 5 meals for New Yorkers in need, our meal helped provide over 22 meals for our struggling neighbors. It took the guilt right out of ordering a second helping of Thrice-Cooked Bacon, to take home
Show and Tell with Granny
Sharron Williams said: Wonderful story. Thank you so much for sharing. A great reminder that we can all "do better&qu...
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Walking from the station to the park, I saw a steady stream of kids and teens walking away from the park with big smiles on their faces, and healthy snacks in hand. Our first day was an unmitigated success. Maybe you saw the truck at a community event, park or pool over the summer and were convinced to Change One Thing!
