Our Method
Our approach and focus is to connect both adults and children to nutritious sources of food as well as provide health and nutritional education utilizing very unique, hands on, experiential teaching methods.
Nourishing NYC is a unique community organization for a number of reasons. In terms of emergency food provisions, we are an organization whose main focuses is providing food that is nutritionally balanced for individuals struggling with diabetes, obesity, chronic diseases and malnutrition. In addition, Nourishing NYC serves a wide range of community members struggling with varying degrees of poverty, ranging from the working-poor to homeless.
Nourishing NYC remains non-denominational so that we can comfortably serve everyone regardless of his or her sex, race, or religious beliefs. At Nourishing NYC, we strive to help our clients move beyond emergency food provisions by teaching them how to make healthy and affordable choices for themselves and their families. Through this aspect of our service, we take a preventive approach to addressing the health crisis in New York City communities.
Who do we serve?
Nourishing NYC primarily serviced the community of East Harlem from 2008 to 2010 but have expanded the range of services in 2011 with the addition of our V.A.N. (Vehicles Advocating Nutrition) Initiative. This allows Nourishing NYC to reach clients in all five boroughs and beyond. For 2008-2010, East Harlem was the mail focus of services. East Harlem is a neighborhood struggling with issues of food insecurity that arises from high rates of poverty and lack of access to quality foods. The East Harlem neighborhood has one of the highest rates of hunger as well as the highest rate of obesity in New York City, with 62% of the population overweight or obese. This apparent contrast can be explained by the heavy presence of affordably priced, yet, nutritionally void fast food and the scarcity of affordable fruits
and vegetables. The East Harlem community has the densest concentration of
diabetes in any borough, making obesity rates far from the only indication of a health crisis. East Harlem also struggles with severe issues of poverty. Throughout East Harlem, 33% of families live below the poverty line. The number is even higher for families with children under five years old, 43% of whom are currently living below the poverty line. Disability rates are also staggering with 34% of East Harlem residents claiming disability (compared to the national average of 19%).2 Nourishing NYC was created as a means to address the pressing need to rectify the correlation between high rates of poverty and poor health throughout the East Harlem and greater New York City community. Our data collection coincides with these studies. Randomly distributed surveys reveal that, on average, 25% of our hot meal clients have been diagnosed with type one or two diabetes. A full 65% of clients also report speaking Spanish as their primary language at home. Our clients are therefore very much representative of the largely malnourished minority community of East Harlem.
There have been improvements in the physical infrastructure of the community in the past few years: green carts can be seen on a couple of street corners and bodegas area encouraged to carry fresh foods. However, the community still needs to learn how to integrate these fresh foods into their diets within the time and monetary limitations associated
with high rates of poverty.
Our experiences in East Harlem have allowed Nourishing NYC to address these same issues in similar communities.
