The River Fund New York

The River Fund New York, Inc. is a community based organization dedicated to The task of fighting poverty and rebuilding human dignity in multiple New York city communities. This is accomplished initially by ensuring that we promptly address The challenge of food insufficiency for every household that comes to us for help. As a result of our comprehensive approach to nutrition going beyond emergency food assistance to address nutrition education, income support, vitamin distribution, infant and senior specific foods, plus a wide range of other diet related efforts we have become one of The leading suppliers of groceries to families in need living in a 100 zip code area of New York city's five boroughs. Using sophisticated, customized database technology and other systems, we are able to track The progress we make in supporting The families and individuals who benefit from our programs. It is important to note that more that 60% of The household heads in our client population have jobs, but are compensated at levels that keep their families at or below The poverty line. Twenty-five percent of our beneficiaries are seniors, half of whom suffer from serious debilitating conditions. Of our non-senior population, including children, some 22% are physically or mentally challenged. New York city's poverty-combat arena as a leading organization that actively pioneers innovative approaches for tackling hunger, homelessness and poverty.

Building our capacity as a one-stop-shop in The poverty combat arena, over time, we gradually assembled our various efforts to support children into a coordinated initiative under The heading "cradle to college". In 2013, we even launched america's very first child poverty awareness day and we recieved government recognition for this proactiveeffort. Held each year on The second sunday in august, this event focuses attention on The burgeoning mass of New York city children in poverty while giving them and their families a day of fun and entertainment, along with The necessary equipment to start The New school year in september. The many efforts that are combined into ourcradle to college initiative culminate in our four-year scholarship program, which (i) closes The gap, each year, between government aid and The true cost of attending college, (ii) provides students with a monthly metro card, so they can actually make it to class and their part-time jobs everyday, (iii) equips them with a brand New commercial-grade laptop, (iv) covers The cost of books, (v) provides independent mobile wifi access, (vi) helps students pay for lunch atcollege, and (vii) supplies consistently, upon release, The full most up-to-date suite of The leading office-productivity software all The way through graduation. The River Fund believes that "breaking The cycle of poverty" can be effectively accomplished by placing The children of households in poverty on a pathway to success so that, uponbecoming productive members of society, they can pull their families and neighborhoods forward.

Although there are over 100 different benefits and services from both public and private sources that are available to people in poverty, most eligible households never access The programs; for those who do, enrollment is challenging. Each program requires pre-screening, qualification assessment, lengthy applications, document verification, and finally, if approved, periodic re-certification. This is tedious, and invariably burdensome, cycle promotes poverty because household heads spend numerous days on each registration instead of job hunting. The River Fund New York, Inc. offers one stop pre-screening, pre-qualification, enrollment and subsequent re-certifications for all of these benefits and services-thus saving clients The expense and frustration of visiting dozens of offices all over The city, sometimes just to get basic information about a benefit. Our efforts in this regard include free tax-filing services which have actually repatriated thousands of tax dollars back into The community that may have otherwise gone unclaimed. The River Fund New York, Inc. has become The primary partner in queens for several community programs sponsored by The food bank for New York city, The nyc human resources administration, The nyc office of financial empowerment, and other federal, state and city entities that need strong, community based organizations to advance important poverty reduction objectives in our neighborhoods. This is accomplished with in house food stamp enrollment services directly input into government data systems, legal aid and advocacy among our many other programs.