NYC Community Relief Fund

While expanded restrictions are keeping New Yorkers at home, the city’s home-delivered meal program is an essential service and continues at this time. For over 18,000 homebound elderly Citymeals recipients, who are too frail to shop or cook for themselves, these deliveries provide critical nourishment and a regular wellness check-in. Citymeals is also now serving an additional 22,000 older people who typically get their breakfast and lunch at local senior centers. Citymeals has already delivered 150,000 emergency meals to older New Yorkers across the five boroughs and is now preparing and delivering an additional 300,000 emergency meals to meet the growing demand. 100% of all public contributions will go to the preparation and delivery of meals.

As our city’s leading hunger-relief organization, we must be prepared to provide emergency food to vulnerable New Yorkers who may be quarantined, along with those impacted by the economic downturn. Your donation will help Food Bank meet the increased need for food, following COVID-19. $1 doubles to help provide 10 meals to struggling New Yorkers.

Rethink Food NYC Inc is a non-profit organization that utilizes food excess from restaurants, grocery stores and corporate kitchens to create new and nutritious meals for those in need. Rethink has also set up operations for Emergency Food Management, to not only feed those in need during times of crisis, but to fund and activate local food purveyors during these times. This is a model that commenced in New York City in response to COVID-19, with plans to roll out nationally as need grows. Rethink is working on this to be a federally funded program, so the country can not only feed Americans in need, but also employ and help American businesses during times of crisis. The nonprofit is giving 30 New York City restaurants stipends of up to $40,000 each to provide 500 to 1,000 meals per day over the next eight weeks.

In times of crisis New Yorkers turn to Robin Hood. We don’t yet know the full ramifications of this global pandemic, but we do know this: under-resourced and vulnerable communities are being hit the hardest. That is why for the third time in our history, we have re-activated a special Relief Fund to address the Coronavirus and related effects. Please help us support the work of New York’s top social service organizations who are on the frontlines of this crisis.

United Way of New York City has established the COVID-19 Community Fund, a dedicated resource to support the COVID-19 public health emergency. We will mobilize our broad network of over 600 community-based partners throughout the City to provide assistance to families to weather the COVID-19 crisis. This network of community partners will provide direct services through our ReadNYC, FeedNYC and StrengthenNYC programs. UWNYC also has the ability to provide and sustain remote learning for students. Principals, teachers and families need help NOW. We can help teachers and principals reach their families and provide critical and ongoing resources like learning, food distribution and social work supports.