The Daily News and City Harvest’s annual food drive—the city’s largest—is in full swing, aiming to collect more than 600,000 pounds of food for needy New Yorkers.
With Thanksgiving two weeks away, the Daily News and City Harvest are already hard at work collecting nutritious food for New York City families, but could use as many donations from big-hearted city residents as they can to reach their goal.
This year’s drive, which began Oct. 20, will run through January 15 and hopes to collect everything from pasta to potatoes to peanut butter.
“Many New Yorkers are feeling the strain as they try to get necessities like food on the table for their families,” Andrew Julian, executive editor for the New York Daily News, said. “The annual New York Daily News City Harvest food drive offers a chance to extend a generous hand and make a difference in the lives of those struggling.”
Nearly 50% of working-age New Yorkers are having a hard time making ends meet, City Harvest CEO Jilly Stephens said.
“We know the holiday season can be especially difficult as many of our neighbors are feeling the squeeze of the high cost of living and changes to benefits on top of additional holiday-season expenses,” she said. “The Daily News Food Drive is an important opportunity for New Yorkers to come together and help ensure our neighbors have nutritious food this holiday season and throughout the winter. We are grateful to the Daily News and all of our partners for standing with New Yorkers during this critical time.”
The drive comes as New Yorkers are having a tougher time putting food on the table, said Stephens, citing what she described as an ongoing affordability crisis in the city and cuts to federal food assistance programs.
Currently, one in five New Yorkers is experiencing food insecurity, up from one in six a year ago and one in eight in 2019, according to City Harvest data.
The need is expected to grow after an $186 billion budget cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will leave 26,500 people without access to SNAP benefits due to its new work-reporting requirements, Stephens said.
To help close the food gap, City Harvest plans to rescue and deliver 100 million pounds of food this year.
A big part of the organization’s effort is its partnership with The News. For more than 40 years, City Harvest and The News have worked together like bacon and eggs to help families through the holidays.
The most-needed items for the drive include canned fruit, canned vegetables, canned tuna or beans, peanut butter, cereal and packaged macaroni and cheese. Nonperishable food donations can be dropped off at participating Apple Bank locations, FDNY firehouses, NYPD precincts, and – for the first time – all library branches across the New York Public Library, the Queens Public Library, and the Brooklyn Public Library.
For more information on how to donate, one can visit www.cityharvest.org/daily-news-food-drive.