New York, NY, April 17, 2020– Food insecurity for New Yorkers has exponentially increased during the COVID-19 outbreak. Communities for Healthy Food (CfHF) at West Harlem Group Assistance, Inc. (WHGA) has now served an excess of 100,000 residents at their food pantry.
CfHF at WHGA has been serving West and Central Harlem as a designated relief hub in partnership with the Food Bank for New York City. To date, the CfHF at WHGA food hub records service to a total of 132,462 persons since its 2014 opening. Service for the month of March is recorded at an excess of 6000 persons. Through the hub, residents have access to frozen and dry foods, hot meals, PPE (personal protective equipment), baby products, personal products and pet food. This includes the daily distribution of 300 to 600 ready-to-eat meals in collaboration with Red Rabbit.
“Demand for services and resources have increased dramatically here at the hub over the past few weeks. We will continue to work with other city stakeholders as part of our COVID-19 response action. We want to serve as many as we can and we continue to put measures in place to facilitate serving more clients as we prepare for the continued effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Food insecurity for our residents is not by any means exciting, but the positive in this is that we are prepared to help,” shares CfHF at WHGA site director, Antaeus Turns-Ashcraft.
The CfHF at WHGA food hub has since altered their plan of operation. The food hub will be open on every weekday from Monday to Friday to distribute food and other basic items. Drive-through distribution has also been implemented. Residents who are not registered with CfHF at WHGA are still eligible to receive service. All other services such as SNAP and WIC registration have been temporarily discontinued. Further details can be found on the website at www.whgainc.org
WHGA’s mission is to revitalize NYC through housing and economic development. In addition to housing, WHGA operates programs to provide small business opportunities, address homelessness, support anti-drug initiatives, address early childhood disabilities and development issues, adult employability, community medical access and access to technology. WHGA has developed over 1,600 units of affordable rental housing, 800 of which they directly manage; 125 of those units function as emergency homeless housing and 167 units provide housing for seniors. It owns 43,767 square feet of commercial space. Under city and state contracts, WHGA assists hundreds of tenants and landlords each year with building code repairs, housing court counseling and eviction prevention. Learn more at www.whgainc.org.
###