FOOD PANTRIES - West Harlem Community Kitchen and Food Pantry

While I was minding my own business, busy working at a job that I really like, suddenly, I found myself with my work hours so drastically cut that I couldn't even afford to pay my rent. Forget about buying food.

I prioritized: No more manicures; then no more haircuts; then no more Strivectin, and I went to drugstore makeup (which isn't half bad - did you know that LOreal owns Lancome?) I quit yoga classes. I had the gas turned off (not the electricity, just the gas). I quit smoking. I quit going to restaurants. I quit going to movies. I cancelled cable TV (in my part of NYC that means NO TV). The only thing I couldn't quit was eating (and I got down to one meal a day for about 5 weeks before I realized that eating is something you just cannot quit doing)

Looking for work is a process which takes time. Meanwhile, there was no money for food, or even medicine, for that matter (I pay for insurance, but don't have enough money to pay the co-pay to go see the doctor and/or pick up the meds at the local pharmacy, so I considered ditching the insurance as well - not so good when you qualify as a senior citizen in some places).

So, I did what anyone with a computer would do - I googled. 

I looked at food pantries around the city, but almost all required certain qualifications, like already being on food stamps (lots of people who are working to pay the rent do not qualify for food stamps, even though they do not have enough money to buy food). As a member of a CSA which donates food to a local food pantry, I was shocked when I found out that the food pantry my CSA donates to serves only people who have SNAP cards (don’t those people get enough food with their SNAP cards?), and does not allow the working needy to come in.

Someone told me of a food pantry in her church, and I went there, but I had to go around with a “handler”, who would ask me if I wanted this or that, and did not offer some things that I might have liked, but how could I say that when I was getting a handout, out of the goodness of their hearts.  I was grateful for the food, but I was very embarrassed.

As a result, I was very surprised, and grateful, to find the Community Kitchen and Food Pantry in Harlem, where the only criteria for going there is that you think you need that service.

I had to go to a totally new neighborhood, but the place wasn't hard to find, as it had a huge store-like welcoming sign.

I couldn't figure out how to get in, but, when I asked a nice lady at the door, she put her arm around me, took me inside, sat me down at a table, and gave me the application forms not only for the food pantry, but, also, for the senior citizen program (this senior citizen program has a low eligibility age)

The West Harlem Food Pantry is set up like a little market. They have a system of “points” for choosing your food (for example: you might get 2 points worth of pasta or beans, 1 point worth of canned salmon or cat food, etc., and they have some “free” items, as well). They also have fresh vegetables. The first time I was there, "shoppers" were walking around unsupervised and making their choices based on their point cards. There was someone to “check people out” at the end, i.e. make sure they hadn’t over-spent on points. 

What I liked best about this place that first time was how people were treated with respect and dignity (they were left alone to make their own choices based on their points cards), and, also,  how helpful the “shoppers” were to one another, pointing out things someone might have missed, or sharing recipes and tips.

The Community Kitchen and Food Pantry is also host to a CSA (community supported agriculture) group, during the summer and fall growing seasons, which delivers fresh organic vegetables from a local farm for members to pick up once a week. The outstanding part about their particular CSA is the sliding scale (based on  income) for the cost of the CSA membership.  This is just a teaser. I will talk about CSAs, and my CSA experience in another post.