The Urban Outreach Center of NYC is committed to ending the hunger gap in East Harlem and the Upper East Side.

We believe that every New Yorker deserves to have healthy food, received in an environment that is dignified and centered on justice and hospitality.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit NYC, nearly 2 in 5 New York City families struggled each month to provide basic resources for their families — often choosing between rent and utilities, transportation to work, and having enough food to put on the table for their children.

COVID has only exacerbated these already deep problems on food insecurity. Early estimates now list 1 in 4 New Yorkers as food-insecure.

The Urban Outreach Center has been on the front-lines with our pandemic response — continuing to deliver thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables every week and distributing nearly 20,000 meals per month since March 2020.

As our number of guests served monthly continues to rise, we are excited to launch the first supermarket-style food pantry on the East Side of Manhattan later this year at our new facility at 1745 1st Avenue.

In this new environment — that simulates a normal grocery store shopping experience — we will continue to expand our pantry service model to provide hundreds of thousands of more meals annually and build toward our vision of ending the hunger gap in East Harlem and the Upper East Side.