The Broome County Council of Churches received a $1.5 million grant from New York State’s Food Access Expansion Program that will allow its Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse to provide chef-prepared frozen meals and expand its mobile truck food services.

The grant money will fund CHOW’s new commercial kitchen and a Mobile Market Bus, which will prepare and deliver SNAP-eligible prepared meals as part of its prepared meal initiative. CHOW distributes free food to over 120 emergency food programs. The organization distributes 2.72 million meals across the county each year.

Les Aylesworth, CHOW’s director since 2019, told Pipe Dream that the initiative began in 2023 after he and a colleague visited Toronto and saw local emergency food programs. He said traditional food pantries stocked with canned and dry goods do not serve the needs of everyone in the community, particularly unhoused individuals or those who lack permanent housing and currently live in hotel rooms.

“The best they have is a microwave, right?” Aylesworth said. “So they, for whatever reasons, are in that situation, but they obviously don’t have kitchens. They probably could cook, but they don’t have the ability to do so.”

A traditional pantry does not adequately meet the food needs of many families, Aylesworth said. To bridge that gap, CHOW began distributing frozen meals, working out of a small teaching kitchen at SUNY Broome’s culinary institute. Despite limitations, the team, with the help of a hired chef, has already made nearly 8,000 meals.

With their new initiative, CHOW aims to deliver “chef-inspired, restaurant-quality meals” to help families in need feel valued.

“Our mission statement at the Council is connecting compassion with needs, inspiring growth with dignity,” Aylesworth. ”That dignity part is very important to us. We want to demonstrate to people that you matter, [we] care, we see you, we love you, we want to help you.”

Beyond addressing hunger, Aylesworth said the frozen meal program will also reduce food waste. CHOW mostly provides locally sourced products from grocery stores and distributors that are past their sell-by dates but still safe to eat. By freezing prepared meals, CHOW can preserve food that otherwise might not reach families in time. Aylesworth said that last year alone, CHOW prevented the equivalent of over 160 garbage trucks’ worth of food from going to waste.

Along with the Broome County Council of Churches, eight other organizations received Food Access Expansion grants as part of Hunger Action Month, recognized every September to boost awareness of food insecurity. These grants are aimed at boosting healthy food access in underserved areas.

Last Friday, Richard A. Ball, the state’s agriculture commissioner, visited the Broome County Council of Churches and toured the facility that will house the new commercial kitchen. He also tried samples of food made by the organization’s executive chef.

“One of our highest priorities here at the Department is making sure that all New Yorkers have access to enough fresh, local foods, and that our farmers can get their products to those who need them most,” Ball said in a press release. “Our Food Access Expansion Grant Program is a great way of connecting those dots and helping us to achieve those goals in real and meaningful ways.”

Additional partnerships are also on the horizon. Through support from the nonprofit Care Compass Network and a partnership with the Junior League, a group seeking to empower women in the Greater Binghamton area, CHOW plans to add a food truck to deliver hot meals directly to underserved neighborhoods.

On Sept. 20, CHOW will host its annual Hunger Walk at Oakdale Commons from noon to 3 p.m. The event, which will feature music and activities, will be held to raise awareness about local hunger and support its food donations.

“We got a lot of things in the pipeline,” says Aylesworth. “Right now, we’re very grateful to get this big grant, and now in many ways, the hard work begins of securing it and building it.”