Annual Report 2021

2021 was a pivotal year for Meals on Main Street.  For many businesses, the pandemic was a major disruption, but for feeding programs, it presented a double-edged sword.  While many businesses were closing down, we were faced with the need to ramp up.  We just couldn’t abandon our mission to feed the hungry, especially since so many more people needed food and couldn’t go out to get it.  So, we stayed open but the changes we made to accommodate the pandemic proved to be more than short-term adjustments and we found we needed to keep adapting into the second year. 

It became clear that a return to normal operation was not only taking longer than planned, but it might be altogether impossible, at least for the near term.  So, here we are in a new year with a new operating model that is much more mobile, and highly adaptable.  Instead of waiting for people who need food to come to us, we go to them, with home deliveries, a pop-up truck that opens into a choice pantry, and a small network of shuttles between our local food hub in Port Chester and community centers, pantries and soup kitchens throughout Westchester, Fairfield and the Bronx. 

How did this happen?  

We didn’t do it alone.  Yes, we did start the process, and we did that prior to the pandemic, reaching out to everyone and anyone involved in providing food. What began as a small contingent of community partners has continued to grow, not just here in Port Chester, our home base, but across the county and the state. 

We also rebranded ourselves, focusing on the message and the mission: Meals on Main Street lets everyone know where we believe food programs belong, on every main street in every community, and the food, whether meals, groceries or farm fresh produce needs to be delivered with the respect and dignity befitting a Main Street locale.

Who would have thought that we and our volunteers would have so much fun loading fruit and vegetables on our Pop-Up Truck? 

The truck is designed for flexibility and adaptability, with adjustable mobile shelving that can be loaded and offloaded with ease, providing countless variations of what and how the food is displayed.  And at Christmas time, the truck was loaded with stockings and toys as well. 

The first truck, sponsored by The Shade Store, has been our pilot, helping us develop group volunteer opportunities while showcasing the value and excitement of bringing a choice pantry to any food insecure or low-income neighborhood. 

The second truck, currently on order, is being funded by a grant from Westchester County and will be deployed from our new food hub in in partnership with Hudson Link in Ossining to wherever food security is a concern. 

The funding for the food hub was made possible in large part by a grant from the Westchester Community Foundation, a division of The New York Community Foundation. Westchester Community Foundation’s mission is to connect generous people to the causes they care about and invest in transformative ideas and organizations to improve lives and strengthen our community. WCF is a division of The New York Community Trust, one of the largest community foundations in the country, with assets of approximately $2.6 billion. Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, the largest health foundation focused only on New York.

We would not be in a position to help so many people without the funding and support from these organizations, foundations, businesses, religious institutions and individuals who believe in the mission of eliminating food insecurity and doing it with dignity and respect.  Thank you all for caring and sharing.  It doesn’t take a lot to do a lot.  It just takes the will to act. 

Best,

Bill Cusano

MOMS Actions:

2021 Results

Total Meals Provided = 427,135

MOMS created a food insecurity solution movement within Port Chester.

we marshalled other Port Chester organizations to jointly focus on the problem, creating a collaborative environment to meet the community need. collectively, these efforts resulted in 1.2 Million meals served in Port Chester, exceeding our goal of 1 Million.

2022 Vision

A Collaborative Solution

Working with experts in other fields makes the job easier for all

Sharing our capabilities with organizations within Port Chester has increased the effectiveness of our and their programs while creating a collaborative community.  

Those organizations that only have a kitchen or only a pantry, come to us with their needs because we do both. With our ability to pick-up recovery food, store it in refrigerated containers, and create meals in our kitchen, we

1. freely support other pantries with both fresh food and groceries from our inventory and

2. support those organizations who provide community meal services such as the Knights of Columbus, the Carver Center, and the Salvation Army.

MOMS, known for its solution engineering, pioneered and then implemented a Restaurant Meals Program. We purchased meals directly from local restaurants at cost to serve to our clientele. This program kept restaurants open, workers employed and fed clients.

Furthermore, we were able to facilitate the vaccination of these restaurant workers, allowing the restaurants to reestablish themselves early in the recovery process. So innovative and successful was this program that New York State replicated it.

There was an explosion in our food recovery program, expanding two-fold in just one year! Recovery food represented 73% of our total food acquisition, up from 41% the previous year.  The effect is:

1. cost reduction,

2. less food waste and

3. significantly more fresh perishables getting to the community in need.

We have daily food recovery programs with Wegmans, Whole Foods, Costco, DeCicco’s and other retailers.  Previously, this food would have been thrown out.  

And, finally…

Three years after acquiring the building at 509-511 North Main Street in Port Chester, we are literally breaking ground.

The interior has been gutted and the exterior work is underway to prepare a platform for our cooler and storage unit.

Community Food Hub Model

Each food hub acts as a temporary holding station for perishable goods that needs to get to food insecure communities quickly and efficiently.

The food is distributed either by local pantries and kitchens or by mobile (Pop-Up) pantry trucks.