New York Common Pantry

“The 990 is reviewed by the finance committee prior to submission to the executive committee for approval and filing.”

“The policy covers all board members, officers and senior staff, each of whom is to complete a signed conflict of interest form annually which discloses all actual or potential conflicting interests as of that date and commits to promptly disclose any conflict that may arise during the year to the board chair or the executive committee. Interested parties who may have an actual or potential conflict of interest will not participate in decisions affecting that interest and the organization as follows: such a director shall not vote on a matter in which he/she has an interest and shall not attempt to influence other directors regarding such a matter without first disclosing that interest. A majority of the board or committee may prohibit an interested director from participating in the discussion about the matter. In addition, all transactions with interested parties are reviewed by the executive committee to determine that they are fair and will benefit new york common pantry and not the interested party.”

“Executive director (2016), development director (2016) and deputy executive director (2016)- compensation research results, profiles and articles were attained from a variety of sources, including nonprofit coordinating committee of new york, professionals for nonprofits, chronicle of philanthropy, and charity navigator. Executive director presented salary increases for the development director and deputy executive director to the board of directors for discussion and vote. Nycp's board of directors established compensation for the executive director.”

“Form 990 is available for review on our website (www.nycommonpantry.org) and a copy of conflict of interest policy and other governing documents are available upon request.”

“New york common pantry (nycp) served 3,028,168 meals across programs in fy16. In total, $4,645,938 in resources was accessed for nycp families across all programs, and an additional $1,594,697 was acquired through partnerships with organizations that assisted members with tax filing/returns, health benefits, supplemental nutrition assistance (snap) and more. The combined total of these resources was $6,240,635, up 5% from fy15. The majority of meals were provided to approximately 216,168 visitors in our choice pantry program. That figure comprised 23,336 distinct pantry members. Another 67,036 breakfasts and dinners were served in our hot meals program while 4,619 brown bags were served on holidays and weekends, when hot meals were not available. Nycp also continued to expand its nutrition education, wellness and active living classes through its live healthy! Program. The live healthy! Program held 1,587 sessions during the year, an increase of 1,020 sessions or 179% from fy15 (this program had already grown 133% between fy13 and fy14 and 13% between fy14 and fy15). Live healthy! Served 3442 distinct adults and children, an increase of 101% from fy15(the program had already grown 84% between fy14 and 15). In addition the level of commitment in the live healthy! Program, as seen in the aggregate attendance count, continued to grow. Between fy14 and 15 the program grew 10%,and that increase grew another whopping 190% between fy15 and fy16. That meant there were 21,777 participants in fy16, up from 7,500 in fy 15. In fy16 nycp began operating nourish, the commodity supplemental food program operated in conjunction with the new york state hpnap/csfp program, originating with the united states department of agriculture (usda). The program began operating in december, providing snap eligible seniors 60 years of age and older, with pantry packages. Nourish served over 80 sites in bronx, manhattan, queens and brooklyn, partnering with senior centers, senior housing facilities, naturally occurring retirement communities, and new york city housing authority senior buildings, as well as other community centers where low-income seniors reside. In addition, as part of the nourish program, nycp opened a fixed "participant enrollment site' in the mott haven section of the bronx, serving that community and other communities suffering from food insecurity. Together the mobile and participant enrollment sites served 355,941 meals to over 39,000 senior citizens in 7 months of operation. A warehouse in hunts point was established to receive the deliveries and to pack the food for the mobile sites. The total number of distinct/unduplicated people served across all programs was 323,000 visitors, and that represented 70,007 distinct or unique members, up 41% from fy15. Nycp partnered with 185 sites across programs, delivering food, case management and benefits access, and live healthy! Services. The establishment of the nourish program, the continued reach and growth of the live healthy! Program, the expansion of the mobile help 365 program, coupled with wages that did not rise to match the increased cost of living and lingering effects of the cuts to the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap), continue to drive this growth.”

“Fy16 14,454 volunteers worked 48,236 hours. Volunteer hours represented $1,330,831 in saved labor costs based on new york state's 2015 volunteer rate. All told, volunteers performed 37 % of the total labor hours of the organization, and over 90% of the labor hours in the choice pantry and the hot meals programs.”

“In fy16 nycp began operating nourish, the commodity supplemental food program operated in conjunction with the new york state hpnap/csfp program, originating with the united states department of agriculture (usda). The program began operating in december, providing snap eligible senior citizens 60 years of age and older, with food packages selected from a menu of choices across food categories, that they are able to prepare in their own homes. Nourish served over 80 sites in bronx, manhattan, queens and brooklyn in seven months of operation in fy16, partnering with senior centers, senior housing facilities, naturally occurring retirement communities, and new york city housing authority senior buildings, as well as other community centers where seniors living on low-incomes reside. In addition, as part of the nourish program, nycp opened a fixed "participant enrollment site' in the mott haven section of the bronx, to serve adjacent communities suffering from food insecurity. Together the mobile and participant enrollment sites served 355,941 meals to over 39,000 senior citizens in the seven months. A warehouse in hunts point was established to receive the deliveries and to pack the food for the mobile sites, and by the end of fy16 nycp had both received a total of 4 donated box trucks and one ford transit, and raised funds to purchase an additional box truck to be able to distribute the food to the sites. The truck will be purchased in fy17. Nourish, which ramped up in fy16, will reach its full caseload in fy17, serving over 13,500 senior citizens each month, and over 1.4 million meals for the year.”

“Live healthy! Program expanded significantly in fy16, as described earlier in the summary section. This program, which focuses on nutrition education, wellness and active living classes, not only increased its existing programming, it added new components and made changes to its staffing structure to promote policy, systems and environmental activities (pse's). Two new initiatives were undertaken in that area. First, a school garden and wellness initiative was started with cs211 in the bronx. Nycp partnered with the school to implement a planting, harvesting, and maintenance schedule supported by the community, school families and staff that would allow for higher food yields before consistent harvest days, while creating opportunities for physical activity. Specific goals of the enriched program were to enhance nutrition and physical activity through standards-based gardening activities for students and staff; increase access to fresh foods in the community; establish a network of community gardeners that can help support and maintain garden activities and production; and create a cohesive timeline of activities that made health promotion and physical activity a part of daily activities. By the end of fy16, there were 10 key stakeholders collaborating in wellness committee meetings and supporting the initiatives, and the school adopted 'dig in' as a part of their curriculum. In addition, nycp created a composting program at the school, providing it with composting containers and bins to use in the lunch room and the garden. Nycp organized harvest festivals, in collaboration with other school programs, to distribute the harvested vegetables from the garden to the families and the community. Second, in order to improve farmer's market usage amongst the snap-ed population, community partners were supported and trained to use 'health bucks' vouchers to purchase seasonal local fruits and vegetables. Nycp worked closely with community site leaders to apply for these vouchers, which included accessing the application, learning how to how to write a successful application and then formulating and presenting a plan to distribute the vouchers. Live healthy! Then provided instruction using the 'just say yes to fruits and vegetables' curriculum, and after the class, the group traveled to the farmer's market to use the "health bucks'. B. In addition, help 365, which provides case management and benefits access such as medical benefits, snap and other resources, grew to become a citywide service. Help 365 mobile, which in fy15 and 14 served far rockaway, queens and a few other sites in brooklyn, branched out to access resources for many more low-income communities. Of the $4,645,938 accessed by nycp case managers, $1,218,086 was accessed through the help 365 mobile team, serving 20 different zip codes-- 12 in the bronx, five in queens, three in manhattan and two in brooklyn. This program allowed agency representatives and experienced case managers to leverage partnerships with other community-based organizations, and then work in those communities where people may not be aware of resources available to them, like tax assistance or benefits access, accessing these resources and referring people to other service centers.”

“In compliance with the non-profit revitalization act, the finance and audit committee, including the chair and the treasurer, initiate the audit process, speaking with the auditors and having periodic calls to review the status of the audit as it proceeds. In addition, upon completion, the auditor and the finance committee review the findings of the audit. It is then reviewed by the executive committee and full board, where it is voted on and approved.”