How Cynthia Knox Of ‘Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill’ Is Helping To Address The Growing Challenge Of Food Insecurity
An Interview With Martita Mestey
I wish someone would have shared with me that holding others accountable doesn’t mean you are being unpleasant, it just means you are doing your job. There are so many times over the course of my career when I ran out of steam because someone else wasn’t doing what they needed to do, and I picked up the slack. Not only did that impact me negatively but it prevented the other person from potentially growing. I mentor staff, particularly female staff, to understand that holding others accountable is a GOOD thing!
In many parts of the United States, there is a crisis of people having limited reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. As prices rise, this problem will likely become more acute. How can this problem be solved? Who are the leaders helping to address this crisis?
In this interview series, we are talking to leaders who are helping to address the increasing problem of food insecurity who can share the initiatives they are leading to address and solve this problem.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Cynthia Knox.
Cynthia B. Knox, Esq., is the CEO of Caring for the Hungry & Homeless of Peekskill (CHHOP), a non-profit that aims to alleviate hunger and homelessness in Peekskill and its surrounding areas. As CHHOP’s leader, Knox successfully increased organization revenue by 227%, drove private revenue 10-basis points higher to 17%, and improved program staffing by 280% within five years. She has also developed programs in response to community needs, such as a collaborative rapid-rehousing (RISE) program for domestic violence survivors, and reimagined CHHOP’s food pantry as “farm to pantry” when demand skyrocketed from 20,000 in 2019 to 90,000 in 2022.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
From an early age I was focused on inequity and my responsibility to change it. A few years after college, I enrolled in CUNY School of Law, a then relatively new public interest law school created by a number of brilliant critical legal studies scholars and others. The mission of CUNY Law School is two-fold: to learn, teach and practice law in the service of human needs and to transform the law so that it includes those it would otherwise exclude, marginalize, and oppress. I received an amazing legal education that was not limited to learning legal doctrine but also understanding how legal doctrine has been applied over the centuries. Following law school, I engaged in various types of legal work, including HIV/AIDS advocacy, and general legal services. For the past few years, I have been leading a nonprofit organization that addresses food and housing insecurity. I see a line from my early passion to create change, to my law school education that helped me understand and analyze systemic inequity, to my work as a l public-interest lawyer, to leading an organization focused on the basic human rights of safe affordable housing and healthy, nutritious food for all.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I learned a great lesson early on in my career. I was leaving a legal position for another opportunity. My boss Joe thanked me and said all the polite, cordial things one says when a less experienced employee moves on. I asked Joe if he had any constructive criticism for me. He thought for a moment and said words to the effect that he was not too keen about the time when he asked me for the meaning of a sentence I had drafted into a legal document, and I couldn’t explain what it meant. I had taken “boilerplate” language and inserted it without even understanding what it was about. I never repeated that mistake!
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
My definition of success has changed over the years. As a lawyer, “winning” has been important to me as has advocating for others. That ability to advocate for others has been invaluable to me in my current position leading an organization focused on housing and food insecurity.
Each job I have held has taught me something that I needed to learn for a subsequent opportunity. I did not always know it at the time, but always, in hindsight. I now understood that each professional experience has been a building block. similar to how our personal experiences shape who we “grow” into. The most important “take away” to me is that the more open we can be to learning from our experiences and the more we can grow into our authentic selves, the more success (however we define that) we will have.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I would probably cringe to read it now as it is very outdated, but when I was a kid “Black Like me” by John Howard Griffith had an enormous influence on me. This is a book about a white man who traveled in the South as a Black man in the 60s and chronicled his experiences. Growing up in a white suburban community, this book basically broke open something inside me. When I was young, probably my early teens, my aunt Jade told me I should go to law school. When she said that, something clicked for me. I had done a lot of reading about the civil rights movement and felt a strong connection to the movement but didn’t really have an understanding of how I could channel that passion. It took a while, but I eventually went to law school with the goal of advocating for marginalized individuals and communities.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Curiosity: I definitely had a learning curve when I started at CHHOP. It took time for me to get to know clients and to understand that each person who walks through our doors has experienced trauma unique to them AND that they each possess a unique human dignity. The beauty of human resilience unfolds at its own pace. Being curious about each individual’s journey has helped me be a better leader. It has helped me to encourage staff to ask “why,” and to approach clients with an openness to learning. That results in clients like Denise, a domestic violence survivor living in her own apartment who shares her story so that others can learn from her, and Gordon, a man who worked his entire adult life and became homeless when the rent became “to damn high.” Gordon lives in his own apartment and is the “right hand person” for our food pantry coordinator. Being curious allows people to open up and show you who they are and who they aspire to be.
Passion: I believe that we all want our life to have meaning. Bringing passion to my work and my life keeps me alive. I care about the people I work for and with. What we do is so basic, it makes no sense that we have to do it at all because what we do is help people with healthy food that feeds their bodies, minds and spirits, and provide housing that shelters the body and provides a respite. What’s so hard about that?
Humility: When I was a young lawyer, I was much less effective than I am now. The difference is that I put so much pressure on myself thinking that I should “know it all”! How silly is that! As I matured, I began to understand how vast the universe is and that I knew such a small segment of it. I have no problem now saying that I don’t know something and asking for more information. I think that curiosity and humility go hand in hand. If I am willing to admit that I don’t know something, then I can be free to be curious and find out. The possibilities become virtually endless!
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There are two “Life Lesson Quotes that act as my life guideposts!
The spirituality of the poet Mary Oliver (who died in 2019) resonates deeply with me. In her poetry you experience human impermanence, “the beauty and mystery of the world” and profound joy. My favorite “Life Lesson Quote hangs above my desk: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life”?
The work of former NY State Poet Laureate, Black, Lesbian, Warrior, poet Audre Lorde (who died in 1991), had a tremendous impact upon me as a college student. She had an amazing ability to combine beauty, passion for life, and activism in a way that almost vibrated off the page. We have a very long, narrow staircase that leads into our shelter. When you approach the landing after making this daunting climb, you are greeted with an image of a radiant Audre Lorde, arms akimbo, and the quote” “When I dare to be powerful- to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” Each of us has a vision. Our work is to help one another unlock and actualize that vision.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. Can you describe to our readers how your work is helping to address the challenge of food insecurity?
I learned the most about food insecurity as a result of the pandemic. As with so many other organizations, when the pandemic struck, we had to immediately re-envision how we operated. “Business as usual” went out the door quickly. We had to reconfigure our food pantry so that it was safe for staff, clients, and volunteers, as well as meet a demand that tripled virtually overnight. At the same time, we had to really examine our model as a food pantry. We, like so many other pantries, operated out of a charity model- the majority of the food was donated and supplemented by what we purchased. The focus was on getting food to people- often times measured in “pounds” without a commensurate focus on the type of food that was being collected and distributed. We realized that we had a duty to ensure that we brought healthy, nutritious food into the community- food that strengthened people’s immune systems, particularly in a community such as ours which has high rates of hypertension and diabetes. Our work on food and housing insecurity is done through a “health equity” lens. Healthy, nutritious food enables people to flourish and helps them maximize their health, well-being, and human potential. Safe, affordable housing has the same impact upon individuals, families, and communities. Our food pantry is “farm to pantry” and we source food from local farms, including vegetables, beef and eggs and survey clients about the food that they want to eat. We are open twice a week and serve an average of over 400 families a week. Our average household size is 4.1 so that is a huge percentage of our community’s population of approximately 25,000.
Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?
That’s a difficult one- there are so many people and aspects about the work of which I am proud! We had a client, “Fatima” who was in our RISE program which is a collaborative program for survivors of domestic violence. Fatima came to the USA for an arranged marriage. She lived with her husband and her husband’s family as is customary in her culture. From the outset, her husband’s family was abusive to Fatima. Fatima had no family in the USA. When the family started abusing her young son, she made plans to flee. Leaving with nothing but the clothing on their back, she and her son fled to a shelter and ultimately a permanent apartment and support services through the RISE program. Fatima supported herself and her child by doing online translation. They didn’t have much but they lived in peace. Fatima’s son had a Batman bank which they would fill with change. When the holidays rolled around her son asked to take the money from the bank to buy presents for the children who were still in the shelter. It’s acts of generosity such as that in the words of the Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Coburn are the “straw that broke me open” and function as the “eternal flame of hope.”
In your opinion, what should other business and civic leaders do to further address these problems? Can you please share a few things that can be done to further address the problem of food insecurity?
Food pantries were started over 50 years ago as a temporary solution to a crisis situation. We have normalized that people in our communities don’t have enough healthy, nutritious food to thrive. I have a framed poster in my office with the trenchant quote from Former Brazilian Bishop Dom Helder Camara “When I give food to the poor they call me a saint, when I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. “We need to change our paradigm. so that no one operates in food insecurity from a “charity “model. It’s a human right to have enough healthy, nutritious food to thrive. We have to advocate for changes such as livable wages and affordable health care. The lack of employment opportunities at a livable wage for so many is a root cause of food insecurity. The federal government needs to INCREASE SNAP benefits not decrease as recently occurred during a time of significant food inflation. We need to examine WHY people don’t have enough healthy, nutritious food. Feeding people is important, questioning why we even need to do that in such an affluent country is a question that we need to raise each, and every day, followed by action to change that.
Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address the challenge of food scarcity? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work? Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.
Gosh, that’s a great question! I have never met her, but Katie S. Martin is one of my sheroes! She is the Executive Director of the Foodshare Institute for Hunger Research and Solutions and the author of a groundbreaking book entitled “Reinventing Food Banks and Pantries: New Tools to End Hunger.” I have the online version of the book and it is highlighted on basically every other page. Ms. Martin has significant experience in food insecurity from the “ground up” and presents a model for addressing food insecurity that focuses on the root cause of hunger. The model is revolutionary because it truly combines “on the ground” strategies for empowering clients (choice pantries,), “Institutional,” (providing quality food in an environment that conveys respect for the participants) to long term strategies (living wages). She provides concrete strategies for how we can effectuate the kind of changes that we need.
If you had the power to influence legislation, are there laws that you would like to see introduced that might help you in your work?
We need legislation to ensure that everyone who works can make a livable wage.
SNAP benefit levels need to be increased as they are not sufficient for an individual or family to afford the food that will help thrive and maintain well-being. Just think for a minute about the difference in how you feel after you have eaten a good, healthy meal and when you are hungry or have just scarfed down fast food to get something in your stomach. Are you as alert? Are you feeling engaged and ready to take on whatever challenges you face?
Funding for sustainable employment programs. We need to invest in people, in helping them learn skills so they can maximize their potential. Think about all the possibilities that exist if we harness more of people’s innate skills and aptitudes. It will change our world.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Whether I would have been able to hear it or not early on is another question! I guess I wish someone had told me that wherever it was I was going, I would get there. I would not have worried so much about whether I was doing it “right.”
I would have liked someone to say that they would teach me. I intentionally work to mentor less experienced people, particularly about the intangible aspects of nonprofit work, including how to build individual, organizational, and community relationships. I also try to mentor less experienced staff about the importance of strong financial and administrative systems. A lot of my learning was on the fly. I think many women who were “ahead “of me in terms of experience, were focused on keeping their heads above water and less on mentoring those with less experience.
I wish someone would have shared with me that holding others accountable doesn’t mean you are being unpleasant, it just means you are doing your job. There are so many times over the course of my career when I ran out of steam because someone else wasn’t doing what they needed to do, and I picked up the slack. Not only did that impact me negatively but it prevented the other person from potentially growing. I mentor staff, particularly female staff, to understand that holding others accountable is a GOOD thing!
I wish that someone had told me early on that saying “I don’t know” can be some of the most powerful words I can utter!
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Without a doubt, it would be that we develop the capacity as individuals, families, and communities to experience life as abundant. Particularly in the USA, we have so much natural beauty, human diversity, and resources. In that space where I am not afraid that I am less than, or have less, exists great possibility; it’s the metaphorical difference between being physically hunched over and standing tall and open.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I recently started reading “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington” by James Kirchick. The author briefly discusses Abraham Lincoln who had a very close male friend with whom he slept and may or may not have been gay. I think about Lincoln, someone who had huge responsibilities for a young country riven by the evils of slavery and other divisions, while facing so much personal difficulty including the death of a young son, a spouse with menta health challenges, perhaps being gay or bi-sexual. I would want to talk with him about our country today and what he sees as a way forward out of this morass of violence and polarization.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
People can follow our work online by visiting CHHOP’s social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram). Readers can also sign up for CHHOP’s newsletter at https://www.chhop.org/subscribe.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
How Cynthia Knox Of ‘Caring for the Hungry and Homeless of Peekskill’ Is Helping To Address The… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.