The New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH) is a nonprofit organization, which aims to “enact innovative solutions to help society move ‘beyond the soup kitchen’ to ensure economic and food self-sufficiency for all Americans”.
In contrast to other organizations, NYCCAH generally does not distribute food but rather concerns itself with providing technical assistance to groups which do while simultaneously affecting hunger policy at a more macro-urban scale.
The alliance lobbied Congress to reauthorize the Child Nutrition Act in order to maintain the School Lunch and Breakfast Programs, WIC, and CACFP for another 5 years.
Furthermore, after the law was passed, it increased the federal reimbursement for free school lunches by 6 cents and the number of after-school meals to be distributed nationwide by 20 million.
The Farm-Fresh Project, a citywide program model, provides members with diverse food options while connecting small local farms to a larger populace.
On February 23, 2011 “Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a series of new initiatives aimed at helping communities increase food access by promoting coordination and partnerships between public, private and non-profit partners.”[5] A consortium of NYC groups-including NYCCAH-received a total of 2 million dollars to pursue these policies.
[8] The VISTA members also serve to increase the capacity of anti-hunger community organizations to provide comprehensive benefit assistance and outreach to low-income constituents, particularly to seniors, working families, and Latino populations.