The Connected Chef Announces Major Private Gift to Support its Food Security Program
The organization is also receiving key governmental funding and support
March 2, 2023 - The Connected Chef (TCC) is thrilled to announce a transformative gift of $900,000 from a private donor that will provide critical capacity building support over a three year period to grow and expand its food security programs that serve Western Queens. The donor lives in the community and chooses to remain anonymous so the focus can remain on TCC’s innovative model for engaging and serving food insecure communities.
“The Connected Chef’s Lifeline Groceries grew out of the pandemic to deliver fresh produce and nutrient-dense groceries to families who were unable to receive government assistance and were struggling,” said Kim Calichio, co-founder of The Connected Chef. “While COVID brought the issue of food insecurity to light for many people, it continues to affect a significant number of families in Western Queens every day. We are deeply grateful to have this support that will allow us to tackle root causes of food insecurity and build up our community.”
Over the past year, The Connected Chef has been awarded $350,000 in funding from former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney as well as additional program funding from Assemblymember Zorhan Mamdani and NYC Council Members Tiffany Cabán and Julie Won. The Amazing Mets Foundation recently granted $51,000 to TCC to support capital needs for its distribution hub in Long Island City.
“We served over 127,00 grocery boxes to over 3,000 unique families across Queens and expanded our programs including two new Astoria sites at The Young Women’s Leadership School and PS17/Q300, as well as PS110 in Corona over the past year,” said Omar Bravo, co-founder of The Connected Chef. “With this generous gift, we can continue to deliver our services but also take time to do some strategic planning, community engagement, and staff capacity-building to sustain us in the future.”
TCC’s Lifeline Groceries operates a subscription service where anyone can access its locally-grown produce grocery boxes on a sliding scale from $0 to $45 along with weekly farm stands that operate seasonally out of its Long Island City facility and the 31st Ave Open Street in Astoria.
“Since March 2020, TCC has been working non-stop to meet the needs of our neighbors,” said Maryam Shariat Mudrick, TCC board member. “Instead of holding our breath to see if we’ll be able to continue, we now have some breathing room to plan and guarantee core operations will be intact in the near future. We are grateful to everyone who has donated over the years and are eager to strengthen our work.”
Lifeline Grocery recipient Judy Maravilla who now works as a TCC staff member said “I’ve had such a good experience being part of this team and now am excited to build Lifeline into a program that has lasting impact.”
How will money be utilized?
The $900,000 private gift is being disbursed over a three year period with $300,000 released annually. This funding will be used specifically to ensure Lifeline Grocery develops into a self-funding, food justice program capable of supporting it’s free and low-cost grocery tiers without the need for additional grants and individual contributions.
Our goal is that by 2025, Lifeline Grocery is a financially sound food justice program supporting 80% of The Connected Chef’s budget securely by covering the cost of $0 - $45 food distribution.
Key steps to build financial organizational health.
Outside bookkeeping and accounting services to provide oversight and clear understanding of income, expenses & budget.
Wholistic financial advisor services to help us map out our goals and ensure our financial health is aligned with our mission and values.
Consultation services with the Non-Profit Financial Fund: This key support will help our team make strategic program changes to Lifeline Grocery that will make sure our payment tiers are financially balanced so that the higher tiers are sufficiently supporting the low and free tiers. This consulting program will also help our team to dive further into ensuring our Lifeline Grocery model is build on a foundation of solidarity economy work.
Relaunch of our weekly, $0 Lifeline Grocery program.
In June 2022, our team had to pause our weekly $0 distribution due to insufficient funding. We continued monthly and one off distributions to our community, but have been working toward bringing back $0 weekly distribution in a more sustainable way. Previously, all $0 grocery distribution occurred separately from our paid programming. While quality and amount of produce was always the same, regardless of an individual’s income, the ingredients for our $0 boxes often came from different sources, including donated food.
As of 3/9/2023, 100 $0 Lifeline Grocery boxes will be available weekly to qualifying community members - with all aspects of our Lifeline grocery program, regardless of payment, being identical.
All produce in our $0 Lifeline Grocery boxes will be sourced from the same local farms as our paid tiers.
All individuals receiving $0 boxes will join our online order platform to ensure consistent customer service.
40 free Lifeline grocery boxes available for pick up through our Queens school partners.
60 free Lifeline grocery boxes will be direct delivered to recipients previously on our Lifeline Grocery list.
All $0 recipients qualify by answering a private survey. This survey was first opened up to our previous Lifeline recipients that we had to stop serving June 2022. Currently, 73 of those families are still on our waitlist. (86% of our $0 Lifeline recipients are Spanish-speaking preferred, with 24% living in Corona, Queens)
The $350,000 awarded by former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s office is funding through HUD’s Community Project Funding Initiative and supported by Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
This funding will be used for the development of a long-term Community Food Hub location in Queens. The outcome of this program will be the establishment of a community model and roadmap that will provide any neighborhood with the tools and steps to building a community food system rooted in sovereignty and liberation. More details on how this funding will be used will be annouced in the months to come.
Additional support from Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, Council Member Julie Won and Council Member Tiffany Caban will also help to support the free grocery distribution for 2022-2023.
The $51,000 awarded by The Amazing Mets Foundation will be utilized for the purchase of a refrigerated van and cold storage units.
Since March 2020, The Connected Chef has been renting a van and using The People’s Bodega to distribute groceries. With the purchase of a van, our van rental costs of $500 a month will be reallocated to food & supplies costs.
Community donations have been the lifeline of The Connected Chef since March 2020 and we would not have arrived at this pivotal moment without the constant support and contributions from our community members. We are forever grateful for the support you all give us and we’re excited to have the opportunity to continue this work together!
Contributions of any amount to build a community-rooted food system can be made at: https://www.theconnectedchef.org/donate
