City Harvest: More New Yorkers Seeking Food Assistance

By: Roger Clark

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Blaming bad economic times and unemployment on the rise, City Harvest says it is working harder than ever to feed hungry New Yorkers.

The food rescue organization says the number of people taking advantage of emergency food programs like one at the Bowery Mission, is on the rise – with data showing a 15 percent increase over last year in visits by New Yorkers to food pantries and soup kitchens from July through September of this year.

"The team at city harvest is fielding a terrific number of calls from agencies and people who are looking for food,” said City Harvest Executive Director Jilly Stephens.

A survey of nearly 400 agencies that get City Harvest food shows almost two-thirds are seeing an increase in visits, and almost 60 percent are seeing more visits by children.

"Yeah, we do three meals a day, 365 days a year, and every time I'm at this mission, this place is packed, morning, noon and evening,” said James Macklin, outreach director at the Bowery Mission. “And City Harvest has just been extraordinary when it comes to helping us do what we do."

"Being unemployed, financially strapped as many New Yorkers are, I needed to come to a place like this,” said one food recipient. “I've never been to a place like this before, so I had no idea what it was like, so it was truly overwhelming to see the amount of food that comes in here through organizations such as City Harvest."

City Harvest says it is up to the challenge – hoping to obtain more than eight-million pounds of food this autumn and winter from restaurants, grocers, manufacturers and farms.

"City Harvest is working with many partners throughout New York City to find and move more food into the soup kitchens and food pantries across the five boroughs and help people turning to those agencies learn how to access food stamps how to access the benefits available to them,” Stephens said.

To find out how you can help, go to the agency's website at '+summary+'

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