Community Emergency Planning in NYC - A Toolkit for Community Leaders

FEEDING + COMMODITY DISTRIBUTION

TRIGGERS:

• Access to usual supply chains for food, water, and medical services and equipment is disrupted.

• Disruption of utilities, such as electricity, cooking gas or water thatprevents the public from safely storing and preparing food.

WHAT DOES THE CITY DO?

• Maintains an emergency stockpile designed to support life, safety, and hygiene for 70,000 people for seven days. Examples of standard items include: food, water, cots, blankets, clothing, Diabetes testing strips, mobility aids, and over-the-counter medicine.

• The Food Access Lead Team, made up of non-profit, public and private organizations, implements the Emergency Feeding Strategy to provide residents with food and water through shelters, fixed meal distribution sites or mobile feeding units.

• The Emergency Feeding Strategy may also include commodity distribution points (CDPs), which are temporary sites set up in affected communities to provide life-sustaining commodities like food, water, ice, and baby formula.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Check Emergency Management’s website or social media or 311 to find out what operations are activated.

• Organize your community to check in on your neighbors and work with your elected officials to share information and communicate unmet needs.

• Join your local Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) to be trained on how to support emergency operations like CDPs.