What a (Fiscal) Year! What’s Next?

The demand for our services is growing exponentially. We now deliver more than 17,000 meals each weekday. This is only accomplished with the help of our loyal volunteers, some of whom have been volunteering with us for decades. Our staff also deserves to be recognized for their ingenuity and their commitment to our clients, particularly given our rapid growth. Their innovation and commitment never cease to amaze me. We onboarded dozens of new staff this year who are working hard on behalf of our clients.

Getting the word out about our good work is critical to our success. Last fall we launched our first television PSA in more than 20 years, voiced by iconic New Yorkers Rosie Perez (in English) and Zoe Saldaña (in Spanish). The New York City Wine & Food Festival (NYCWFF) garnered 7 billion media impressions, $8 million in free advertising, and welcomed more than 50,000 foodies to the festivities this year. Love Rocks NYC added another billion media impressions. We rang the NASDAQ Opening Bell in celebration of NYCWFF and Love Rocks NYC. As the official charity partner of the New York Post, God’s Love saw four great features throughout the year.

We hope you’re one of our 115k+ followers on social media and that you’ve seen our work online! Recently, our work was featured on the popular social media channels @schoolhousecaulk and @publicopinionny. On Instagram we launched our new agency music video, “Delivering Love,” starring Tony Award-winner Bonnie Milligan and Broadway stars Bradley Gibson, Arielle Jacobs, and Zachary Noah Piser.

Our volunteer department welcomed more than 23,500 volunteers this year, among them 680+ corporate and student groups. Our volunteers provided an astounding 141,547 hours of service. We launched year-round Young Hearts volunteer opportunities for our younger volunteers and engaged 700 drivers to help us deliver meals on Thanksgiving Day. We are grateful for all our volunteers’ contributions, including the times you shared your volunteer story with friends, family, and colleagues to raise awareness of our life-affirming work.

Our Advocacy efforts have been successful at all levels. We hosted 29 advocacy visits with City, State, and Federal Representatives and staff. We gave testimony to the NYC Council and welcomed seven elected officials in the kitchen for Thanksgiving. The city, the state, and the country are truly paying attention to “food is medicine.”

Healthcare starts with healthy food, and our Business Development and Community Partnerships (BDCP) team has been hard at work managing partnerships with healthcare teams to provide our meals and nutrition services to their members. Our team conducted a whopping 600 outreach activities and increased number of healthcare clients served by 30%. If you would like to partner with us, please reach out to our team at partner@glwd.org.

We continue to work to improve the health and well-being of our community. We added sickle cell disease as a qualifying diagnosis for our program. We welcomed a behavioral health program administrator for our CONNECTED program for U.S. Military Veterans, and launched a Veteran-specific quarterly newsletter.

How about a few more numbers? We:

• made 380,693 successful deliveries
• provided 9,355 nutrition counseling sessions
• distributed 14,141 pieces of nutrition education
• completed 4,912 intakes and managed 15,337 inquiries
• processed 8,200 pounds of food each weekday and baked 9,400 birthday cakes
• thanked more than 34,000 donors for their extraordinary support

Our client population is diverse, though diabetes, HIV, and cancer are the most common diagnoses we serve. 90% of our clients live below the federal poverty line, and 64% of our clients are age 60+. Our life-sustaining meals and supportive services are provided free of cost to our clients, their caregivers, and any dependent children in the home. There is also no waiting list—we provide clients with their first meal within 2 business days.

As we take time at the end of our fiscal year to review our milestones and achievements, we remind ourselves that each client is unique and depends upon God’s Love for the individualized nutrition and care which are the hallmarks of our program.

“God’s Love We Deliver’s meals have saved my life. I feel they are made with such love and dedication. All of the staff I have interacted with have been so kind and professional, especially my driver.”

“God’s Love has literally been a godsend. My dad and I are both disabled. The services are amazing, and we love the meals. I feel like I am finally eating as I should. I didn’t have much appetite before but the food is really palatable. I think my dad may have put on a few pounds, which is good. Thank you.”

“I want to thank your whole team for taking care of my brother. God’s Love came to the rescue on a white horse!”