In the effort to make healthy food accessible to low-income residents, community developers and activists have re-envisioned the traditional food pantry. New client-choice food hubs offer one-stop “shopping” for wholesome food, cooking and nutrition classes and public benefits—all free—explains LISC NYC’s Colleen Flynn in a column for Rooflines, the Shelterforce blog. This is the second article of a three-part Shelterforce series on LISC’s investment in healthy food access.
The excerpt below is from:
“Filling Vacancies with Food”
by Colleen Flynn
When I tell people that food pantries can be a new and innovative way to help lift up communities, they look at me as if I’m a bit out of touch. I get it: Long the province of churches and charities, food pantries don’t hold the same kind of sway that housing or schools or businesses do when it comes to community development.
They’re important, but often thought of as commonplace
A new model in New York is helping to change all of that. On Lenox Avenue and 141st Street, the West Harlem Community Healthy Food Hub is taking an economic development approach to helping low-income people eat better—one designed to build demand for fresh food as it builds partnerships among nonprofits, businesses, city agencies and investors.
The hub is a food pantry with a farm-share program, offering produce and staples operating from what had been a long-vacant neighborhood storefront. It has transformed the space into a vibrant community center, with better health as its organizing principle.
Gone are the traditional long lines of people handed a bag of canned goods and sent on their way. Here, residents “shop” for healthy food as part of a client-choice approach to food pantries that gives them more of a retail experience. They take part in cooking and nutrition classes, join the new walking club, or get help with public benefits, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—what many people still refer to as food stamps. Because multiple services are offered in one place, residents are better able to take advantage of them, making it easier for them to eat healthier. Continued[+]...