to them by the Human Resources Administration’s Hunger Hotline (1-866-888-8777, for more information on EFAP, see Section 7, Finding Food for Your Program.). This is a hotline that hungry people anywhere in New York City’s five boroughs can call to find out where they can get food that day. The Hunger Hotline will provide a caller with the location of a soup kitchen or food pantry close by. The Hunger Hotline assumes that if an organization registers with the hotline, it will have food available. In order to register with the hotline, agencies are required to be open once per week and have food. Callers do not need referrals to use the Hotline or the agencies to which they are referred, and can simply walk in. To try to serve the people with the greatest need, many pantries require people seeking food to have written referrals. The idea is that another group will have done the job of establishing that the person really needs help. Unfortunately, it does not always work this way. The people in greatest need are often not clients of referring agencies, and it takes time to become a client. There are several ways of dealing with this issue: •
You can eliminate the referral requirement, and trust that people who come to you for food are in great need.
You can document people’s needs yourself .
•
•
You can choose to help only those referred to you by the Hunger Hotline.
Whatever your choice, it is a good idea to have a list on hand of other food programs in your neighborhood where you can send the people you cannot help. The list should include
Partnering with Other Programs to Expand Your Services Many of the people who come to your EFP will have multiple needs. You may wish to offer more assistance than food. In fact, some programs use their EFPs as a hub around which they have developed other services such as medical screening, housing and legal assistance, job training, GED and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs. People come for the food, and stay to improve their lives in other ways. Some ways to expand your services include: Work with other EFPs to share information and coordinate your services. (You can get a list of emergency food programs in your zip code by contacting the Human Resources Administration’s Hunger Hotline 1-866-8888777, clicking “Find Help” on the Food Bank For NYC’s webpage at foodbanknyc.org or through the NYC Coalition Against Hunger at 212-825-0028 or www.nyccah.org.) The New York City Coalition Against Hunger Americorps*VISTA team is involved with organizing neighborhood networks. These networks bring different service agencies and EFPs in the same neighborhood together in order to coordinate resources and avoid service duplication. Find out if other agencies in your neighborhood have NYCCAH VISTAS
their hours of operation, groups they serve, and the kinds of documentation they require. If possible have people call first to make sure food is available.
Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry Best Practices Guide
Section 4
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