How You Can Help Feed Homeless New Yorkers

GCFP_Crowdrise

Every night in New York City, nearly a thousand men, women and children wait patiently on street corners for the welcome sight of one of the Grand Central Food Program’s three vans.

Seven days a week, 365 days a year, our vans drive all over Manhattan and the Bronx to deliver approximately 1,000 hot, nutritious meals to hungry and homeless people living on the streets of the city. Some nights it’s raining, some nights it’s snowing – but the Grand Central Food Program has never missed a night in its 30 years of continual operation. Not even during last January’s historic blizzard. Not even during Hurricane Sandy.

For so many homeless New Yorkers, the GCFP brings their only meal of the day. The program also distributes coats and warm clothing during the winter, and fresh socks and t-shirts during the summer. Our dedicated outreach workers ride the vans several nights a week to connect those we serve with other longer terms services.

The Coalition founded the Grand Central Food Program three decades ago the day after a homeless woman died of starvation in Grand Central Terminal. From those humble beginnings of handing out a few dozen sandwiches in Grand Central, the program has grown to become the largest nightly mobile soup kitchen in New York. To date, we have distributed more than 6 million meals. But with near record numbers of homeless people sleeping in shelters and on our streets tonight, the GCFP is needed more than ever.

Like you, we believe no one should have to go to sleep hungry and homeless on the streets of NYC, which is why we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of this life-saving program with a special GCFP30 Campaign.

But we need your help!

From now until June 30th, we’ll be asking our supporters, family and friends to join a Crowdrise campaign to raise $30,000 to help keep this vital program going. Some of our dedicated GCFP volunteers have primed the pump – but there’s still some work to do to reach our goal.

We hope that you can join us in this exciting campaign to make sure that no one in our city must go to sleep hungry and homeless. For less than the price of a cup of coffee, we can provide a healthy meal to a homeless New Yorker like Alberto, who relies on the Grand Central Food Program every day.

Visit coalitionforthehomeless.org/Crowdrise to join a team or create your own!

The top fundraiser will win free tickets (valued at $500) to join us at ARTWALK NY, New York’s premier annual charity art auction. ARTWALK brings together hundreds of artists, art-lovers and other compassionate New Yorkers to celebrate the role of “artist-as-activist” and raise awareness about the issues of homelessness, poverty and social justice. Past honorees have included celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Richard Gere, Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, and renowned artists like Ed Ruscha, Chuck Close and Yoko Ono.

Don’t know where to how to get started? Click to read our Crowdrise 101 guide.

Learn more about the GCFP:

and visit our campaign website to hear stories from our volunteers and the people we serve.