City Harvest Fights Against Hunger
City Harvest recently hosted its fourth annual agency conference, which brought together representatives from more than 100 emergency food agencies throughout the five boroughs of New York City. The agencies rallied together to discuss the problem of hunger in their neighborhoods and attended workshops to help them learn how to spread the word about the battle against hunger throughout America.
"Hunger is not just a third world issue," said director of agency relations Leslie Gordon, "Since the economic downturn, people are accessing emergency food banks more and more."
City Harvest is unique because they provide fresh produce, dairy, and meat products to their participants instead of solely canned foods. City Harvest uses a fleet of 18 trucks to gather fresh foods from farmers, deliver it to agencies, and have it on the table the very same day.
Other food agencies are also doing unique things to provide their clients with healthy, wholesome meals. Anne-Marie Cutwright is a cook for The United Methodist Food Pantry of Rockaway in Queens who is using fresh produce to make gourmet salad creations and house-made dressing.
"I like color in my salads," says Cutwright, "Mixing flavors instead of adding salt is the best approach."
Other food banks are also encouraging the constituents to use healthy cooking methods. Torsha Childs of The Salvation Army of Bushwick, Brooklyn, uses recipes provided by City Harvest to cook some of the fresh food items such as black beans and cabbage
Childs says, "People are discouraged from taking things that they do not know how to cook; once I share these recipes with them they are happy to try healthy options."
Many organizations gathered together at the conference to help alleviate the problem of hunger across generations and Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger is a great example of a company working to acheive this goal.
Rev. Melony Samuels, executive director of Bed-Stuy Campaign Against Hunger, encourages all generations to help. Groups of teens care for the organization's urban garden as well as the beehive, which was started to subsidize the donation the food pantry receives.
By partnering with City Harvest, these organizations are growing, cooking, and sharing to fight against hunger. To get involved in the fight against hunger, visit City Harvest on the Web by clicking here.