On Tuesday, April 20, 2021, The Emma L. Bowen Community Service Center, one of Harlem’s leading community-based organizations dedicated to providing a wide range of comprehensive services to clients from the Harlem community and beyond.
Today announced it has been awarded a grant in the amount of $22,000 from Robin Hood for its successful Food Pantry Program.
The Bowen Center’s Food Pantry program has provided emergency food relief to individuals who are experiencing financial difficulties and need food, since 1986.
The program is run in conjunction with the Food Bank for NYC, United Way of NYC and the Emergency Food and Shelter program, and pantry bags are packaged according to the National Food Guide Pyramid and include fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy and protein, and includes food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Each year more than 22,000 packages of food are distributed to individuals who visit Bowen’s food pantry.
“Our food pantry program is an essential part of the services we provide to the Harlem community and beyond,” said Patricia C. Jordan, Board Chair. “Even prior to the pandemic, we recognized the growing need for food and the distress it was putting on so many households. Those issues have only grown during the pandemic, which is why we continue to seek new partners and sources of funding to help us expand our program to meet the greater need. We so are pleased that Robin Hood has recognized not only the success of our Food Pantry program, but also its need for additional resources so that we can expand the program to help more individuals in need.”
Robin Hood, New York City’s largest poverty-fighting organization, has awarded over $73 million to more than 600 nonprofit organizations across all five boroughs to meet the urgent needs of those impacted by the pandemic and its economic fallout, including $35 million in the form of cash assistance to empower New Yorkers.
The Robin Hood Relief Fund remains one of the only citywide relief funds still in operation one year after the shut-down was declared.
The Bowen Center plans to use the Robin Hood grant to help meet the increased need for its Food Pantry program. Among the purchases will be additional large refrigeration units for storing and maintaining larger quantities of food.
Founded in 1986, the Bowen Center proves services to the Harlem community and beyond through its therapeutic preschool for children with behavioral and developmental issues; outpatient mental health services for children and adolescents; programs for adults & seniors with mental health and addiction recovery; a care management team that provides advocacy and services to homebound individuals; a 20-bed residential addiction recovery facility, and a food pantry program that serves over 22,000 packages of food annually. www.bowencsc.org
Founded in 1988, Robin Hood finds, fuels, and creates the most impactful and scalable solutions lifting families out of poverty in New York City, with models that can work across the country.
In 2020, Robin Hood invested nearly $200 million to provide COVID relief, legal services, housing, meals, workforce development training, education programs, and more to families in poverty in New York City.
Robin Hood tracks every program with rigorous metrics, and since Robin Hood’s Board of Directors covers all overhead, 100 percent of every donation goes directly to the poverty fight.
Learn more at www.robinhood.org.
Photo credit: Emma-Bowen.
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