The New York City-based Starr Foundation is putting up $6 million over the next two years for grants to grassroots hunger relief agencies in the city. Starr is partnering with City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City to disperse the funds, which amount to a 50 percent hike in the foundation’s local food aid grant making. Earlier this month the Food Bank for New York City released a telephone poll of 937 New Yorkers in which 32 percent of respondents said they couldn’t buy food at some point in the last year. Another 69 percent predicted that, if they lost their jobs, they would be unable to buy food within the next year. [9/30/03]