STATEN ISLAND GIVING CIRCLE INC

The Staten Island Giving Circle was founded in January 2008 with a mission to build a community outreach organization committed to assisting underserved children, seniors, and military veterans of our own community.
Our membership has grown from its original 24 people to over 1,000; there are no membership fees. All monies collected through grants and donations are used to fund/ support our diverse initiatives. Our group and activities grew exponentially, and in 2015, we were approved for 501(c)(3) not-for-profit tax status.

Food Insecurity is one of our most important initiatives.
Our Weekend Food Backpack Program provides food to underserved students who experience food scarcity on weekends, holidays, and vacations when the school cafeterias are closed. School Principals and Parent Coordinators identify children/families who need this weekly food supplement. The backpacks, typically filled with beans, rice, pasta, sauce, cereal, granola bars, canned fruit and more are given to the students at the close of school on Friday afternoons; the backpacks are returned on Monday and the cycle continues.

The Veterans Essentials Pantry mission is to honor and support our veterans by ensuring that none of them who have served go hungry. Through our dedicated efforts, we provide nourishment to food-insecure veterans and surviving spouses while fostering a sense of belonging through community engagement and socialization opportunities. Together, we strive to create a supportive environment where every veteran feels valued, connected, and empowered.

The Adopt-A-Pantry program funded through grants, local businesses, organizations and/or individual donors supports Staten Island based food pantries.

Our literacy program has volunteers helping elementary school children with their reading skills.

Our Teachers’ Closets program supplies a school/classroom teacher with $500 worth of goods to parcel out through the year when the needs arise.