Page 33 - Westchester County Economic Development Guide 2013
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The Food Bank for
Westchester
ne common misconception about
hunger relief efforts is that all
food is donated.
Toby Ives, Interim Executive
Director of the Food Bank for
Westchester, notes that many products
must be purchased “to make sure we have
the basics of a complete meal.”
“Thirty years ago, Food Banks rarely
purchased food – we got it donated – but
it’s not possible now,” he says. “Donation
streams are smaller and much of what
would have been donated is now in
secondary markets as manufacturers try to
recoup some of their cost.”
Coordinating the purchase of food
products is an important part of the Food
Bank operation. “Our goal is always to
come in below wholesale market prices and
pass on the savings to the agencies that buy
food from us,” states Ives.
Headquartered in Elmsford, the
Food Bank for Westchester operates a
37,000-square-foot distribution center
serving 226 hunger relief programs
throughout the county. The Food Bank is
one of 200 members of Feeding America,
the national food-bank network.
In fiscal year 2011-2012, the Food Bank
distributed nearly 7 million pounds of food,
3.9 million pounds of which were donated.
The food distribution network handled
about 2.4 million requests for food, and
provided food to approximately 90,000
individuals.
The food that is donated comes from
major food companies and growers all across
the country, as well as the U.S. Department
of Agriculture, but the Food Bank must
arrange and pay for transportation to bring
those tractor-trailers of donated food to
Westchester. Even donated food is not free.
And it’s not just canned goods; today’s
food banks transport and store refrigerated
and frozen provisions as well. “That adds
a whole new aspect to the logistics,” Ives
says.
The Food Bank, which has 28 employees,
received a grant in June 2012 from Kraft
Foods to purchase a “Mobile Food Pantry”
truck with compartments for dry, cold and
frozen food so that it can go to underserved
areas and distribute nutritious foods
directly to clients.
communities,” notes Dr. Philip J. Wilner,
M.D., Vice President and Medical Director
of Behavioral Health. “We employ almost a
thousand people, and we continue to grow
as we prepare for the opening of the region’s
only comprehensive state-of-the-art autism
center.”
The community also benefits from the
quality of care.
“We remain committed to our mission
of providing quality and invaluable
behavioral health services as we have been
for the past 118 years,” Wilner says. “As an
academic medical center, we are immersed
in research, education and training, and
offer the finest experts and cutting-edge
technology to enable us to provide the best
care possible to our patients. We seek to
meet that challenge every day.”
The Center for Autism and the
Developing Brain, slated to open in early
2013 and employ approximately 60 people,
keys on providing multidisciplinary care to
patients of all ages with Autism Spectrum
Disorders (ASD) and other developmental
disorders. The center’s goals are to develop
best practices, support families to make
better decisions, provide gap services and
short-term programs, and participate in
ASD research
“Our affiliation with a major academic
medical institution like NYP attracts
significant research dollars, which enables
us to see patients who otherwise would
not have access to care,” says Dr. Catherine
Lord, Ph.D., the Center’s director. “The
research is quite practical: how to develop
assessment tools and how to change the way
parents interact with their child. Through
various research studies, we bring parents
into the process so the intervention starts as
early as possible and continues at home.”
In 2012, the Center received a large
National Institutes of Health grant to
work with school systems as they focus on
children who are not talking by age 5. The
center also addresses workplace issues.
“We are interested in working with the
business community to find out how it
can be economically beneficial for them
to hire people with ASD,” Lord says. One
program, Project Search, brings high school
students with ASD to the hospital for
job skills training for future competitive
employment.
“Every child is different and every family
is different,” Lord says. “Our mission is
to give families information and skills.
We’ll work with families and their support
systems to make good things happen.”
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