Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York on Oct. 18 announced a new partnership with Hope Kitchen to get nutritious packaged food to needy local patients and students.
“We are constantly trying to find wholesome food, but it is hard to find packaged food that is really nutritious,” Food Bank CEO Tom Nardacci said at a press conference at Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown. “We ordered a tractor load of [Hope Kitchen meals], tested it, and we loved it.”
Designed by John Doherty, former executive chef at the Waldorf Astoria New York, Hope Kitchen meals are packed with protein, have no artificial ingredients or preservatives, and follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nutrition guidelines for children and seniors.
They are healthy, flavorful, and easy to cook, with a two-year shelf life.
“My life had been all about feeding and nourishing people at a very high-end level,” Doherty said of his career before stepping into making nutritious food for the disadvantaged.
“The whole goal is to get these into the hands of people who need them,” he said. “Is this something you are going to eat every day? No. But when you don’t have the time or the ability to prepare what you get from a food bank, this is definitely a quick fix.”
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Through Doherty’s new partnership with the regional food bank, his meals will find their way to discharged patients at Garnet Health and students in Newburgh, among others in need.
“Healing can take place outside the walls of this hospital,” Garnet Health CEO Jonathan Schiller said, “We are very humbled to have had the opportunity to partner with other organizations in the community who are focused on helping people who live right here.”
The Hope Kitchen meals will enrich the hospital system’s existing food pantry program, called Food Farmacy, which has served 300 needy patients in the past year.
“Some of these patients were going through chemotherapy, some were going home with new babies, and a lot of them were being discharged into unstable living conditions,” said Moira Mencher, Garnet Health director of community relations.
According to Kori Rogers, the homeless liaison at Newburgh School District, Hope Kitchen meals will benefit close to 450 Newburgh students who have no place to call home.
Among them, over 100 live in hotels, 29 in transitional housing, and 14 in shelters.
“These meals will nourish the growing body and minds of our children, allowing them to have what they need to be ready to learn,” Rogers said.
Nardacci said that contrary to what many people believe, the need for food bank services has not abated since the COVID-19 years and is still on the rise. His regional food bank has distributed 3.5 million more meals year-to-date compared to last year.
“People just have not been able to get ahead—they are in between paychecks, they are working two jobs, or maybe their car just broke down—there are just so many reasons why people come to our services,” he said.
According to Nardacci, the food bank will soon finish building a new 50,000-square-foot distribution center in Montgomery, one of the largest capital investments within the charitable food system in the Northeast.
The food bank collects food from the food industry, including local farms, and distributes it to more than a thousand partner agencies and programs throughout 23 counties in northeastern New York, from Rockland to border counties next to Canada.
Last year, the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York distributed more than 48 million pounds of food, which is equivalent to 40 million meals, according to its website.
