Carrette Perkins: Success Story No. 2
Another project largely sustained by volunteers is the Community Supported Agriculture models in New York City, which bring fresh, organic produce from small family farms into low-income neighborhoods and ensure that low-income residents are able to afford the produce.
NYCCAH’s own Carrette Perkins, who is both a former Americorps*VISTA and PeaceCorps volunteer, describes her experience in connecting communities to healthy, sustainable food.
Carrette Perkins
“As the program director for the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, I work with community volunteers in 3 New York City neighborhoods on a Community Supported Agriculture Project.
The CSA project grew out of a direct need expressed by the communities. In each of these neighborhoods, residents experienced a lack of access to fresh, affordable produces and were actively seeking to address the problem. The three main goals of these CSAs are to offer, fresh, quality, local produce that would be affordable to all income levels. With this in mind, all three CSAs are structured towards a mixed income membership and offer a variety of payment options, including the option to pay weekly and with SNAP benefits.
In 2007, NYCCAH worked with residents and a number of community organizations in West Harlem to establish the West Harlem CSA. Now in its third year of operation, there are approximately 20 core group members who actively devote their time to organizing and running the CSA throughout the season. Over the last 2 1/2 years, there have been about 134 members who have volunteered a total of over 10,000 hours of their time to keep the CSA in operation and in community activities. Today there are approximately 98 households receiving vegetable shares at this CSA. Last year a total of 9,020 pounds of fresh, organic vegetables was delivered to families participating in the CSA. So far, this year, approximately 1,600 pounds have been distributed. One of the key components of these CSAs is the relationship that members of the CSA build with community organizations in the neighborhood. The West Harlem CSAs weekly distribution is done from the Broadway Presbyterian Church, where all leftover produce is donated to the soup kitchen and members can volunteer wherever they are needed.
Last year, the neighborhood of Long Island City became the second location to establish a CSA. The Long Island City CSA distribution center is located in the Jacob Riis Settlement House, where members have the opportunity to volunteer in a wide range of activities. In its second year of operation, there are now approximately 15 core group members who actively devote their time to organizing and running the CSA. Over the last 1 1/2 years, approxiamately 79 members have volunteered over 8000 hours in this CSA. Today, there are 112 households receiving vegetable shares through this CSA. Last year a total of 11,400 pounds of fresh, organic vegetables was delivered to families participating in the CSA and this year approximately 3,100 pounds have been distributed so far. All left over vegetables are donated to the Jacob Riis senior center, and the CSA members are actively working with the center and other neighborhood organizations to address the food needs of the Long Island City community.
This year, the Flatbush Farm Share was established in Brooklyn. A group of concerned residents who wanted to bring fresh, local, affordable produce to everyone in the neighborhood worked with NYCCAH to make it reality. Six weeks into their first CSA, there are approximately 10 core group members who keep everything running smoothly and already 24 members have volunteered approximately 576 total volunteer hours. There are 133 households receiving vegetable shares at this CSA with a total of approximately 4,000 pounds of fresh, organic vegetables already having been distributed to families participating in the CSA. This CSA has already built strong relationships with community organizations in the neighborhood and are actively working with them to address the food needs in the community.”
Molly Seegers: Success Story No. 1
As part of United We Serve, the New York City Coalition Against Hunger has launched a pilot project to re-define how volunteers and national service participants are used to fight hunger. Moving beyond simple food distribution of emergency food commodities, the project is helping families move towards long-term economic self-sufficiency by helping them obtain federal nutrition assistance, including SNAP (also known as food stamp) benefits, which give extra food purchasing power to families, many of whom are either working at low wages or are recently unemployed.
Most of the work of the project is being conducted by full-time VISTA*AmeriCorps national service participants and part-time volunteers, but the Coalition is extraordinarily fortunate to benefit from the full-time volunteer work this summer of Molly Seegers, a junior at Haverford College, who is now interning for the Coalition, having been referred to us by our wonderful colleagues at the Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger, with whom she previously interned/volunteered.
Molly recently was responsible for a great anti-hunger success story, which she describes in her own words:
Molly Seegers
“On June 25, I took the 5 train up to 3rd Ave and 149th Street (in the South Bronx) to conduct food stamp pre-screenings at La Iglesia Cristiana Shekinah’s block party. Women with shopping carts and families were lined up outside the church waiting to attend the day’s festivities. Maria Estrada, the day’s coordinator, greeted me graciously and introduced me to their Pastor. I set up my Food Stamp (SNAP) benefits pre-screening table. Cornell University’s Community Nutrition had a table across from me to demonstrate how much sugar different beverages contain. There was a woman administering HIV testing as well. People slowly trickled in as the Pastor commenced her speech detailing the day’s events. Ms. Estrada translated as the Pastor gave her speech.
When the speech ended the fifty or so people attending the event split off to the different tables. The first man who approached me to be screened was in a situation that entitled him to emergency food stamps. He had no source of income as he cleaned a residential building full time in order to live in the basement for free. I could tell this was a day where everyone I screened would be eligible, if not eligible for the maximum benefits.
I screened eight people in three hours, each with a harrowing story of serious deprivation that left their nutrition by the wayside. One woman I spoke with tried to apply for food stamps at her local food stamps office, but was turned away. Her husband is a day laborer, picked up by a different employer every day, sometimes not getting any work at all. Those weeks are bad, she told me, sometimes he gets paid barely $200 a week to feed 4 people and pay the rent. The office told her that if she could not get a letter from her husband’s employer, she could not receive food stamps. Her case is an egregious situation that demonstrates exemplarily the need for non-profit and volunteer involvement in order to help those lost in the system. The New York City Coalition Against Hunger decided to write a letter explaining the situation so she could feed her two young children.
I knew as I left that hundreds of other people in this neighborhood were eligible for food stamp benefits. I wanted to stay to do pre-screenings all day. However, I am only one person. There could not be a more pressing/crucial time to volunteer to fight hunger and help your community in kind. I have volunteered at many organizations in New York City, such as the Fresh Air Fund, Grand Street Settlement, and St. Francis Xavier Soup Kitchen. The most rewarding, progressive, and efficacious work has been learning how to screen people for food stamp benefits, conducting pre-screenings, and doing advocacy for cases that were not properly handled.
I also learned that La Iglesia Cristiana Shekinah is such an indispensable organization to the community, building social capital by caring for those around them.”
Postscript: A few days later Maria Estrada, of the Iglesia Cristiana Shekinah called the Coalition and left a message thanking Molly for going up to their site to pre-screen. She was extremely thankful for Molly’s help and thought it was a great event – she even said it was a ‘blessing’ that Molly came!
About This Blog
This blog is set up to highlight the positive stories and experiences of projects part of NYCCAH & United We Serve’s Volunteer Initiative 2009.
If you’re interested in sharing your story, please email me (bboyd@nyccah.org) and I’ll post it on this site. I look forward to hearing from y’all!
Till then,
Britt Boyd, Marketing *VISTA
