Improving access to healthy food: City leaders vote on $3M project for low-income areas

Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — The Rochester City Council held a vote Tuesday night on legislation to spend $3 million in COVID relief funds on a pilot project to make healthy food more accessible to people living in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

All present councilmembers voted to approve the project except for Mitch Gruber, who serves as a chief program officer at Foodlink and opted out to avoid a conflict of interest.

Several local organizations are getting in line to receive some of the funding in order to help people in need.

Steve Ellsworth has been coming to lunch at St. Peter’s Kitchen on Brown Street for the past seven years.

“Their food is fantastic,” he said. “If it wasn’t for this place being open, there is a lot of people that would be starving, including myself.”

The nonprofit serves more than 450 hot lunches during the one hour it’s open each week day, and the need for hot, healthy meals in the Rochester community keeps growing.

BACKGROUND: Local leaders addressing food insecurity in Rochester | City of Rochester launches healthy food grant program amid another store closure

Robert Boyd, interim executive director at St. Peter’s Kitchen, says people who visit the nonprofit are from all demographics.

“Since COVID, the numbers have grown as inflation has (its) impact. Surprisingly, a lot of times, people will think that with a hot lunch program, they are homeless, (but) 96 percent of people that come here are housed,” Boyd explained. “40 percent of them are senior citizens who work their entire lives, and they are only trying to live on $1,700-$1,800 a month. They just can’t make due with that.”

St. Peter’s Kitchen is one of six organizations picked by the City of Rochester to use a portion of the $3 million in federal funds.

“This is complicated, not only by a food dessert itself, but also a significant amount of people in the community don’t have a car. The number is like 30 to 40 percent, so if you don’t have a car, you don’t really have the choice to run to a further-away grocery store. We will be able to provide more access to food with this grant.”

The federal dollars would give the kitchen the capacity to handle more food donations and increase the reach of its hot-meal program by adding a Saturday lunch option.

“We could increase our numbers immensely by growing the kitchen and offering more fresh fruit and vegetables,” said Amy Mincer, operations manager at St. Peter’s Kitchen.

“It helps my family here a lot when we are running low on food,” explained Rochester residents Tori and Alex. “My family loves coming here. My son loves it, and they help out with Christmas presents and Thanksgiving dinners, especially when money is really tight and you can’t afford a lot. They really help a lot here.”

In addition to the $3 million in ARPA dollars, the city’s department of neighborhood and business development will put up more than $340,000 towards the project.

Project plans for all six Rochester nonprofits are provided below:

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Source: 13wham.com