This resource guide emerges out of ICNY’s 41st Marshall Meyer’s Retreat: Faith in Action for Food Justice, and features links recommended by our partners and supporters.

Table of Contents

RESOURCES

Government Food Assistance Programs

Human Resources Administration/Department of Social Services (HRA/DSS)
HRA/DSS is responsible to equipping New Yorkers in need with essential benefits, such as Food Assistance and Emergency Rental Assistance. [Center Locations]

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Benefits

SNAP provides food assistance for eligible New Yorkers. SNAP benefits can be used to purchase fresh produce and groceries at participating stores and online retailers.

How to Apply:

Apply online via ACCESS HRA
Call the infoline at 718-557-1399 and ask to have an application mailed to you
Pick up an application at a SNAP center
Fax an application to MARU at 917-639-1111

Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP)
CSFP works to improve the health of low-income persons at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods.

Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP)
TEFAP is a federal program that helps supplement the diets of people with low income by providing them with emergency food assistance at no cost. [Fact Sheet]

Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Supplemental Nutritional Program
WIC provides nutrition for eligible pregnant and postpartum women and children. Fathers and caregivers can also apply for their children. You do NOT need to be a US citizen to receive WIC. Eligibility and NYS WIC Centers.

Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens

Food Health NYC

Food Map
This map shows locations that are currently distributing food, free of charge, throughout New York City. Location sites include soup kitchens, food pantries, community fridges, City Harvest Mobile Markets®, and City Harvest Community Partner Distributions.

NYC Community Fridges

NYC Food Pantries

NYC Neighborhood Food Resource Guides
To help connect community members in need with food resources, the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center created NYC Neighborhood Food Resource Guides for each NYC neighborhood. The neighborhoods are divided by the 59 NYC Department of City Planning’s Community District Profiles. The neighborhood lines and zip codes used for these reports are based on the districts used in the 2018 Community Health Profiles, which contain over fifty measures and statistics of neighborhood health.

Making the Most Out of SNAP

Double Up Food Bucks
When you use your SNAP benefits, Double Up matches your fruit and vegetable purchases dollar for dollar (up to $20 a day). [Locations]

Get the Good Stuff
New Yorkers who participate in SNAP can get free fruits, vegetables and beans at certain NYC supermarkets through Get the Good Stuff. For every dollar you spend using SNAP/EBT on eligible fruits, vegetables and beans, you get a matching dollar (up to $10 per day) that can be used for the next purchase of eligible foods.

GrowNYC Fresh Food Boxes
Grow NYC Fresh Food Boxes offer seasonal produce well below retail prices. Pay in cash, credit/debit, EBT/SNAP, Healthfirst OTC cards (LIP and CC members only), Health Bucks, Greenmarket Bucks, or Fresh Connect Coupons for next week’s share. Fresh Food Box uses an equitable pricing system to ensure access for all New Yorkers. Half-priced Fresh Food Boxes are now available for customers shopping with SNAP! Receive the same great bag of produce for just $7 when you pay with your EBT card at every GrowNYC Fresh Food Box site.

Half Off Farm Box
New Yorkers who participate in SNAP can get a pre-assembled box of locally grown farm fresh fruits and vegetables for half off the price of a full box. Prices vary by site. Each box contains six to 10 items and must be pre-ordered one week in advance.

Health Bucks
Health Bucks are $2 coupons that can be used to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at all NYC farmers markets. For every $2 spent at farmers markets using SNAP on an EBT card, you can get $2 in Health Bucks, up to $10 per day. Health Bucks are available year-round at NYC farmers markets that accept EBT.

Delivery and Mobile Markets

City Harvest Mobile Markets
City Harvest provides over three million pounds of fresh produce, free of charge, every year to nearly 10,000 New York City households through our outdoor farmers’ market-style distributions of fresh produce called Mobile Markets. They’ve expanded the Mobile Market model through partnerships to reach more communities across the five boroughs with Community Partner Distributions.

CityMeals on Wheels
Deliver meals to eligible New Yorkers over 60 years old. Eligibility; requires a Case Manager to coordinate services

Common Pantry
The Mobile Pantry Program helps to increase access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries through collaboration with community-based organizations. The program reduces food insecurity in the community by engaging families that do not have access to free food through traditional channels like food pantries and other resources by bringing food closer to where they live and by removing barriers such as transportation costs. Please contact mobilepantry@nycommonpantry.org for Mobile Pantry site locations and information.

God’s Love We Deliver
Deliver meals to eligible New Yorkers who are too sick to cook or shop for themselves. Eligibility and application; requires a Medical Provider to sign the application for services.

Invisible Hands Deliver
A program delivering groceries and other essential items to populations vulnerable to COVID-19. Use the online form or call (732) 639-1579 to request a delivery.

Market by Met Council
Market by Met Council is a free, easy-to-use online food pantry system for food pantries and the people they serve. Use Market by Met Council to order the food items you choose from participating pantries and arrange a time to pick up—all without waiting in line.

Meals on Wheels America
Deliver meals to eligible Network of over 5,000 independently run local programs. Participating locations. Requirements and eligibility vary from location to location. Some locations may also provide additional services, including pet food and medical supply delivery services.

Mutual Aid Groups
Click here to find the closest mutual aid group to you. Request help online or call the Mutual Aid NYC Hotline: 646-437-8080.

Sustainable and Healthy Food Access

Brooklyn Supported Agriculture
Brooklyn Packers is a worker-owned, Black-led food sourcing, packing, and distribution cooperative. They cut out the grocery store to bring NYC fresh produce from independent farmers, foragers, and makers. Delivery/pickup in BK+QNS.

Composting

Farmers Markets

Fellow Farmer
Fellow Farmer is a platform that allows producers to sell directly to their community, either as an individual from their own farm stand, or together with their peers at the markets they are attending.

Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Program
FRESH provides zoning and financial incentives for the establishment and retention of grocery stores in underserved communities.

Gardens

Green Carts
Green Carts are food carts and trucks that bring fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods to neighborhoods that have lacked access to fresh produce. Green Cart vendors must have a NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene valid mobile food vending license, and operators of the cart or truck must have a Health Department Green Cart (Fresh Fruits and Vegetables) permit

GrowNYC Wholesale
GrowNYC Wholesale exists to help regional family farms thrive by delivering their high-quality products to New York City’s wholesale buyers, and also to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to these fresh, delicious foods..

Educational and Training Programs

Emma’s Torch
Emma’s Torch offers a 11-week, paid apprenticeship program with up to 400 hours of culinary training as well as employability, equity, and empowerment training. Eligibility and Application.

Stellar Farmers Markets
Stellar Farmers Markets program provides free, multilingual nutrition education and cooking demonstrations from July to November. To learn more, email farmersmarkets@health.nyc.gov.

ADVOCACY

Policy Plans and Bills

Policy Platforms

FARM Bill

The Sweet Truth Act

The Sweet Truth Act by Center for Science in the Public Interest

Food Justice Advocacy Groups

Black Farmers United NYS
Black Farmers United NYS is a group of over 100 Black farmers, educators, and food justice advocates from across the state. Without serious investment and intervention, Black farmers in New York State will be marginalized out of existence. Their proposal aims to protect the legacy and ensure the future of Black farmers. They hold the power to radically change how black communities control access to safe, healthy food, and build a collective wealth and health in New York State.

FIG
FIG members are food workers committed to total transformation of the food system, from our home in New York / Lenapehoking and beyond. We envision a food future for all people where equity, sustainability, and community control are baked into the recipe. Together, they work towards this vision by cultivating an ecosystem of people, food businesses, and organizations that serve as a rich soil for their activities. This ranges from hosting opportunities for learning, collaborating and skill-sharing; to mobilizing for concrete actions throughout their network.

Green Guerrillas
Green Guerillas uses a unique mix of education, organizing and advocacy to help people cultivate community gardens, sustain grassroots groups, grow food, engage youth, and address issues critical to the future of food justice and urban agriculture.

East New York Farms
The mission of East New York Farms! is to organize youth and adults to address food justice in our community by promoting local sustainable agriculture and community-led economic development. East New York Farms! is a project of the United Community Centers in partnership with local residents.

Equity Advocates
Equity Advocates builds the capacity of nonprofit organizations to address the underlying causes of food inequity through policy and systems change. We partner with New York-based organizations working to alleviate hunger and poverty, providing them with the tools they need to be more civically engaged—including policy education, advocacy training and coalition-building services. Through this work, we are building a nonpartisan grassroots coalition of powerful advocates and leaders within the food movement.

Just Food
Just Food works passionately to shift the power, health, and wealth of historically marginalized communities that have been purposely divested from by developing community-driven solutions to inequities within the New York regional food system. They catalyze action and create change through our learner-centered trainings, annual conferences, and vibrant network of small- to mid-scale regional farmers. They have made racial, economic, and environmental equity our north star.

WE ACT for Environmental Justice
WE ACT’s mission is to build healthy communities by ensuring that people of color and/or low income residents participate meaningfully in the creation of sound and fair environmental health and protection policies and practices. They envision a community that has 1) informed and engaged residents who participate fully in decision-making on key issues that impact their health and community, 2) strong and equal environmental protections, and 3) increased environmental health through community-based participatory research and evidence-based campaigns.

Street Vendors Project
The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with more than 2,000 vendor members who are working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change. SVP reaches out to vendors in the streets and storage garages and teach them about their legal rights and responsibilities. They hold meetings to plan collective actions, publish reports, and file lawsuits to raise public awareness about vendors and the enormous contribution they make to our city.

Action Steps

Sign-on’s

NYS Farm Bill Policy Platform by Equity Advocates
NYC Alliance for Child Nutrition Reauthorization by Equity Advocates

Write to your Representatives

Find your Representatives (City, State, and Federal)
Template from Bread for the World
Postcard Writing Campaign from Equity Advocates

[Automatically-generated]

Tell Congress – Support & Strengthen Federal Nutrition Programs organized by Feeding New York State
Support A Farm Bill that Builds Healthy, Equitable, and Sustainable Food Systems organized by Bread for the World

Apply to Distribute Health Bucks at your organization
Organizations can apply to receive free Health Bucks to distribute to community members as an incentive to participate in nutrition education and other health-related activities. Applications open in Spring 2024.

Volunteer Opportunities

Afrikana
145th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard
“Greetings everyone! We’re in desperate need of volunteers for the food pantry on Friday’s. We require assistance from 1:30 pm to 7 pm, with the truck arriving at 2pm. This Friday’s (Dec 8) pantry is approaching, and unfortunately, we have no volunteers to support. We need individuals to help with clean-up and organizing the food. It’s important to note that the food isn’t just for migrants; it’s for the entire community. Your support is greatly appreciated.”