A History of Advocacy

WSCAH has been change-maker for decades, advocating for more autonomy in the emergency food sector—both for customers and the organizations that serve them. In 1993 WSCAH created the first pantry in the United States that let customers choose their food. In 2018, we founded The Roundtable: Allies for Food Access, NYC’s first and only collaboration among frontline emergency food providers.

During the pandemic, WSCAH and The Roundtable led advocacy that secured critical essential protections for frontline emergency food workers, providing access to vaccines for thousands of pantries and soup kitchen staff. We also successfully argued for the inclusion of fresh produce in Community Food Connection, a NYC funded program that supports over 700 providers. Today, we continue to advocate in City Hall and Albany for the needs of food insecure families and the organizations that support them.

The “emergency” feeding sector is a misnomer. Emergencies are short-lived. Food insecurity is a decades-old problem and one that shows no signs of letting up. This is why we advocate not only for our customers’ needs but for the entire system to overhaul programs and policies that are outdated and ineffective.