Advocacy & Food Pantry
LSA’s Advocacy Program and Food Pantry help families meet the immediate need for food, as well as addressing longer-term issues such as access to food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security, housing, legal assistance, job training and immigration services.
By helping connect families with these resources, we enable them to move beyond their immediate crises towards greater self-sufficiency. Our Food Pantry is able to provide three days worth of provisions to hungry families with children. This program serves at least 400 families per month and is often the “open door” through which clients learn about, and are referred to, other LSA programs. In addition, program staff and clients reach out to legislators to advocate on behalf of the whole East Harlem community.
LSA’s beautiful new building has made a world of difference for the Advocacy Program and the families we serve. Formerly housed in a crowded, dark space, we now enjoy a bright and welcoming area. Advocates are able to hear the often sensitive and personal stories of our clients in quiet and with a much greater measure of privacy.
The Food Pantry has also benefited greatly from our new facility. The modern kitchen is clean and spacious, and our basement storage area can hold much more food than before. Best of all, the dumbwaiter makes easy work of moving heavy cans from the basement up to the pantry!
An important recent development for the Advocacy Program has been the training of some of LSA’s staff advocates to represent clients in eviction proceedings. One of the most pressing issues for the families of East Harlem is housing. Many tenants live in apartments with terrible conditions: peeling paint, holes in the walls, vermin, mold growth and insufficient heat. Landlords are often neglectful of buildings that house low-income residents, and, in this rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, pressures are increasing on tenants with low rents to make way for newcomers who can pay more for renovated apartments. We see the direct results of this in Advocacy. Families come to us for assistance in dealing with their landlords, getting repairs or heat, or, in the worst cases, trying to avoid eviction.
Another feature of the Advocacy Program is our Educational Counseling Program, which launched in 2005. This program enables us to provide one-on-one academic counseling for some 60 parent/child groups a year, as well as organize workshops on topics from summer camps to college scholarships, a summer reading academy, and a mentoring program. Parents tell us this program has helped them to navigate the often daunting process of research, interviews, tests, forms and visits required to gain entrance to the school of their choice. By empowering our families with knowledge, we are seeing more and more of our clients’ children attending top-notch private, specialized public, and Catholic schools.
Learn About Volunteer Opportunities in our Educational Counseling Program
Advocacy and Food Pantry photo gallery
Educational Counseling Program photo gallery
