Good Food Makes The Difference
Local Produce Link veggies and donanted LIC CSA produce.
Hour Food Pantry’s mission is to address emergency hunger and the related health issues of low-income families.
Hour Children Community Outreach provides a client choice supermarket style food pantry organized to match the color coding of the USDA food pyramid’s food groups. Our mission is to provide healthy and nutritious food in the most non-judgmental and respectful way possible. We also want to build community and help empower neighborhood residents to identify and advocate for resources to nurture and sustain those struggling to survive.
Hour Children Staff and Volunteers help clients shop “supermarket-style” with a smile.
Hour Children Community Outreach (HCCO) provides a full, customer–choice food pantry allowing participants to shop grocery-store-style to our families and the surrounding Long Island City and Astoria community. Our staff and dedicated volunteers provide top quality grocery items, fresh vegetables and fruits, meats and fish, and select breads and bakery goods (Erik Baard’s Biking Bread campaign delivers fresh and local baked goods to the pantry from Pain D’avigon on Mondays and Thursdays). This program also offers a variety of Community Outreach services and activities. We’re able to provide assistance with applying for and maintaining SNAP benefits (formerly the foodstamp program).
We also work with our low-income, elderly, and disabled patrons to file their taxes and receive their refunds.
Our volunteer preparing produce for distribution
We also label foods that are healthier choices like those with no sodium or low sodium, no added sugar and whole grains.
We partnered with NYCCAH(New York City Coalition Against Hunger) in the creation of the Food Action Board (FAB). Meeting bi-monthly with local community members and pantry participants at Hour Children Food Pantry, FAB both engaged in interactive workshops and trainings on community organizing and advocacy around food and social justice issues.
Our pantry is the Long Island City hub-site of the Local Produce Link Program (LPL) a joint project of Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP), United Way, and Just Food, which delivers 200 lbs a week of organic, locally-grown, fresh produce from the Farm at Millers Crossing. HCCO and four other community programs, East River Development Alliance (Bread For Life), Steinway Child and Family Services, Greenpoint Reform Church, Child Development and Support Corporation (CDSC) make up the hub. We were featured as client-choice in a video by United Way of NY which can be found here. Through the LPL program a myriad of dynamic nutrition and cooking events and education are offered through out the year to our pantry participants.
The Local Produce Link program focuses on:
- Building and fostering strong personal relationships between consumers and farmers.
Millie Pearce holding our 2011 Local Produce Link Food Pantry of the Year award and Abigael Burke our Anti-Hunger and Empowerment AmeriCorps member since October 2010. - Annual meet and greet with the individual farmer growing for each hub.
- Annual day-trip to the hub farm – Bringing participants, staff, and volunteers together for a day of farm fun in the fields.
- Just Food Community Chef Program – Identify and nominate community members to be trained to give cooking demonstrations and tastings. For more info please click here.
- Veggie-Educator Project – HCCO staff and volunteers and trained and supported with training and materials to facilitate education on everything veggie from the root to the soup.
- Recipe sharing and nutrition education activities are woven through all the aspects of LPL throughout the year. See some of our favorite recipes here and on Facebook.
Hour Children Food Pantry was awarded 2011 Local Produce Link Food Pantry of the Year! We distributed over 4,659 pounds of organic vegetables from the Farm at Miller’s Crossing. Millie was the Host-Site Coordinator for the pantries in Long Island City as well as Veggie Educator. Abigael Burke was also a Veggie Educator and helped distribute the vegetables.
Our pantry is also the location for Long Island City CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) providing farm-fresh, organic produce priced on a sliding-scale and subsidized for SNAP participants. The pantry also showcases cooking workshops. 
Volunteers provide much needed hands-on support with processing the many families that come to our pantry.
If interested, please contact Linda Manzione at 718-433-4728 ext 220 or Abigael Burke at 718-482-8226.
Canned food drives may help bring attention to food shortages and local hunger issues, but in terms of impact, a dollar goes a lot farther than a can of food. Wholesale and bulk buying enables soup kitchens, food pantries and food banks to purchase food for their guests at deeply discounted rates. As Pastor Ann from Greenpoint Reformed Church’s Food Pantry said here, “At the Food Bank, $50 could buy 200 boxes of cereal as opposed to the perhaps 10 that donors to food drives could get for that much.” Many food pantries also have trouble integrating donated food items into their current stock. Often, there is not a large enough volume of any one item to ensure that families are getting fair and equal shares of the food they need.”
1 in 4 children* in New York City are living in homes without enough food. Your tax deductible donation to Hour Children Community Outreach and Food Pantry will help strengthen our ability to work towards the day when every child has access to three nutritious meals a day.
If you are interested in hosting a “Cash not Cans” campaign please contact Abigael Burke at 718-482-8226 or Linda Manzione at 718-433-4728 ext 220.
