Ample Table For Everyone Completes First Grant Cycle Aimed At Food Security Efforts In New York City

NEW YORK - Oct. 1, 2014 - PRLog -- NEW YORK, NY (October 1, 2014)—In contrast to its reputation for culinary excess, New York City is home to more than one in five (approximately 474,000) children who don’t know when they’ll eat next. While a surplus of heroic organizations work around the clock to help put food on the tables of needy families, The Food Bank for New York City reports the number of New Yorkers on food assistance has increased by 200,000 since 2009—crisis proportions, according to Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH).

So, how does one startup non-profit seeking to fund sustainable, scalable and measurable solutions to feeding those in need focus their givings? “It’s not easy,” says Helaine Geismar Katz, president of Ample Table for Everyone (ATE) (http://ampletableforeveryone.org/), which received 57 grant applications in response to its first call for funding in March 2014, only six months into its organization’s lifecycle.

“It’s mind boggling how much energy and intelligence is being focused on this otherwise fixable problem and, yet, many working people still can’t get through week four of the month on SNAP benefits alone, or find fresh fruits and vegetables at their neighborhood groceries—and the food banks are running out of food,” explains Katz.

ATE was founded on the most basic premise that every child across the five boroughs—a city punctuated by abundance—should be able to say, ‘I ate today!’ In reality, many families lack the resources to provide nutritious and dependable meals. This is called ‘food insecurity’– limited or uncertain availability of food for a healthy life.

ATE’s mission is to help mitigate food insecurity by addressing the key causes: lack of time, lack of money, inaccessibility to nutritious food, and unfamiliarity with a variety of healthy ingredients, cooking methods and recipes. Founded by six business women who lived, worked and raised families in New York City, at a time in their lives when they could tackle a social problem of mutual concern, ATE offers financial support to organizations, individuals, projects, programs and/or new models that empower New York City families to feed themselves on a more sustainable and consistent basis with an emphasis on healthy eating.

Effective immediately, two beneficiaries of ATE funding will be Corbin Hill Food Project (http://corbinhillfoodproject.org/) and PS 84 PTA (Fund for PS 84, Inc.) (http://www.ps84pta.org/) on the Upper West Side.

About Corbin Hill Food Project

The mission of Corbin Hill Food Project is to supply fresh vegetables and fruit where they are needed most. Founded in 2009 by a committed group of Harlem residents, Corbin Hill Food Project has grown into a dynamic network of local farmers; deeply rooted community health, education, environmental and service groups; and more than 1,000 participating individuals in Harlem, Washington Heights and the Bronx—many living in ‘food deserts’—who care about good food and how it is grown.

The Farm Share offers participants seasonal deliveries of fresh, healthy, sustainably grown vegetables and fruit along with flexible payment options, the ability to put share(s) on ‘vacation,’ and payment with SNAP (or Food Stamps) benefits. These seemingly small tweaks on the traditional CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)model have made healthy food access—once reserved for those living in high income ZIP codes—possible for thousands of people.

As such, the program requires a major overhaul to its operating system to keep pace with demand. ATE will fund the development of ‘Tech Veggie,’ of a web-based accounting and communications system to help facilitate ordering, payment and consumer engagement activities, increasing access to members via their smart phones. This technology will then be made available to other organizations across the US that wish to replicate the Corbin Hill model.

“ATE’s partnership and support of this new web-based technology will help us expand these vital, win-win connections between rural farmers and urban eaters, so that we can continue to scale up and impact the health and well-being of the children, families and communities of New York City," said Dennis Derryck, founder and president.

About PS 84 PTA

The PS 84 PTA was created to cultivate an enriched, educational environment in this diverse, Upper West Side elementary school (PK-5).  Unlike many New York City public schools, PS 84 (http://84web.org/about/) has a 4,000 square foot rooftop garden—now revived and flourishing thanks to small grants and PTA fundraising efforts. Fully embraced by students and teachers alike, the garden program (http://84web.org/gardens/), run by garden educator Sharon Kimmelman, exposes these urban children (46% Latino, 20% Black, 29% White, 2% Asian, 3% multi-racial)—through hands-on learning and classroom curricula—to fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs they might not otherwise find at home. “The critical next step, with help from ATE, is to expand the program by teaching students what to do with the vegetables they’ve grown,” explains Megan Nordgren, the mother of a fourth grader and kindergartener, and PS 84 PTA member.

The program will work in three ways: 1) Through partnership with Wellness in the Schools (WITS) (http://www.wellnessintheschools.org/), the entire PS 84 student body (515 students) will receive four cooking classes and eight recipes they can safely and affordably prepare at home. 2) ‘Seventh Period Seasonal Salad Snack for Second Graders’ will teach these young ‘chefs of the future’ to prepare meals with their hauls from the garden helping breed familiarity with different fruits and vegetables, while learning nutrition fundamentals and enjoying meals together.  “When children grow their own food, studies (http://www.rodalenews.com/start-kids-garden) show they’re more likely to eat and enjoy it,” says Kimmelman. 3) ‘Fifth Grade Nutrition Bootcamp’ will help to prepare graduating students to make better food choices by diving deeper into a nutrition curriculum integrated with the garden program and do simple hands-on food prep and sampling.

“Through this integrated program, our students will acquire the know-how and skills to cultivate their own home-gardens, incorporate more affordable, seasonal and local foods into their family meals, make healthier food choices, and ultimately, improve their own health and well being—and the food security of their families,” says Nordgren.

Ample Table for Everyone

ATE’s next grant cycle will begin in January 2015. Anyone wishing to learn more, donate, and/or apply for a grant may visit ampletableforeveryone.org, or follow ATE’s activities on Twitter @ATENYC (https://twitter.com/ATENYC) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/AmpleTableForEveryone?ref=hl).

Ample Table for Everyone is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization based in New York City.