CfHF at WHGA Food Hub Expansion Launch a Success

October 19, 2020– Communities for Healthy Food (CfHF) at West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc. (WHGA) has expanded food pantry facilities and boasts of serving an excess of 5,000 persons with healthy food every month.

In recognition of World Food Day, CfHF at WHGA hosted their official food pantry expansion launch on October 16th, 2019 at the facility on Lenox Avenue, Harlem, New York. CfHF at WHGA was initiated in the year 2014 with the aim of providing under-served residents of West and Central Harlem with access to healthy food. This year, CfHF at WHGA has optimized their resources to increase the size of the food pantry in order to serve more residents. 

The expansion launch was an intimate and highly interactive event where a number of key stakeholders in the West and Central Harlem community were in attendance. Attendees included Councilman Mark Levine, council member for the 7th District Office NYC; Zanita Tisdale, Director of Member Engagement for Food Bank For New York City; Emily Blank, Senior Community Development Officer. 

Antaeus Turns-Ashcraft, CfHF Advocate and Zuleyka Ayala-Manzanet, CfHF Access and Outreach Coordinator, briefly described the activity surrounding the launch, “Planning and executing the expansion launch was a detailed process that required extensive networking and hard work.” Turns-Ashcraft shared more, “This is our community. We love to give back.”   

WHGA Executive Director, Donald C. Notice reflected on the performance and history of the venture, “The vision that we had for this food pantry has grown beyond our expectations. When we started we were servicing a few hundred people a month. LISC was our partner and gave us our start with our first grant…We took that grant and was able to get more support from City Council where it became a city-wide initiative and we were funded with US$125,000 a year in order to set this venture up and put it on the right track. With Tia (Antaeus) and Z (Zuleyka) coming here it has gone to the next level.”

CfHF at WHGA, which has served West and Central Harlem since the year 2014, has provided over 85,000 persons with access to healthy food to date. The CfHF at WHGA team continues to work towards their vision of increasing how many are served. In the future, CfHF at WHGA seeks to solidify existing partnerships and to continuously execute planned action as they aspire to include more multi-faceted services for the community; these include tax, immigration and legal services.

To learn more about CfHF at WHGA visit www.whgainc.org or get in contact with CfHF personnel at (212) 690-7900 or (212) 690-7902.