Celebrating Black History Month | Food Bank For New York City

To celebrate this year’s Black History Month theme of “African Americans and the Arts,” we’ll be exploring how art intersects with our mission to empower every New Yorker to achieve food security for good.

From spotlighting murals at Food Bank member agencies across the five boroughs to highlighting the art-making practices of our very own Food Bankers, we want to show how community art tells the story of a people better than almost anything else can.

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY ART

Murals don’t just beautify public spaces – they change them, often for the better. See the impact murals from across the Food Bank member network make on their communities.

FOOD BANK MURALS

Lamont Wray Jr. is the Director of Individual Giving at Food Bank, but he’s also an accomplished artist. Watch the video above to hear his story.

COMMUNITY ART PROJECT

New Yorkers in our Older Adults Program created an art piece celebrating iconic Black trailblazers from Alvin Ailey to Muhammad Ali, Shirley Chisholm, and more. Learn more.

THE IMPACT OF FOOD INSECURITY

2,000,000+

Black New Yorkers make up nearly 25% of the total NYC population, or approximately 2 million people.

An estimated 24% of the Black community experienced food insecurity in 2020 due to the pandemic.

Black children are almost three times more likely to live in a food-insecure household than white children.

Just under half of Black households (44%) in New York City struggle to meet their basic needs, more than double the income inadequacy rate of White householders.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau 2020. Income and Poverty Report.; NYC Health – Food Insecurity and Access in New York City during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2021; Feeding America – Food Insecurity in Black Communities, January 2022; Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement: Overlooked and Undercounted 2021 Self-Sufficiency Report.

“While the United States has an overall poverty rate of 11.4%, within the Black community, the poverty rate is 19.5%. Meanwhile, poverty in the non-Hispanic, white community is 10.1%.”
Source: Feeding America – Food Insecurity in Black Communities, January 2022

“Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities experience disproportionate financial detriment from the economic shutdown.”
Source: Women’s Center for Education and Career Advancement: Overlooked and Undercounted 2021 Self-Sufficiency Report.

“Structural racism has shaped policies that continue to result in economic exclusion and disadvantages for Black and Latino/a New Yorkers, groups that disproportionately bear the burden of food insecurity as well as adverse chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which may be complicated by not being able to consistently access a nutritious diet.”
Source: NYC Health – Food Insecurity and Access in New York City during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2021.