The Daily News kicked off its 31st annual food drive Thursday, which calls upon New Yorkers to open their hearts and kitchen to the needy. 

The New York Daily News, joined forces with City Harvest and the city's Finest and Bravest for the Daily News' Readers Care to Feed the Hungry of New York food drive.

The City Harvest drive collected one million pounds of food last year and said they're hoping to help even more hungry New Yorkers this year. P.S. 41's fifth-grade class collected 6,000 pounds of food for last year's drive. The city's largest anti-hunger drive collected more than a million pounds of food last year.

Daily News Editor-in-Chief Colin Myler asked New Yorkers to make this year's drive bigger and better than ever before, "because our neighbors need food and help."

"Not for the sake of breaking records, but because our neighbors need food and help," Myler said at a press conference at the Engine Co. 7/Ladder Co. 1 firehouse in Tribeca.

According to City Harvest's Executive Director, Jilly Stephens, one in three city children and one in five seniors live in poverty.

"City Harvest relies on the New York City community and at the Daily News we take that responsibility very seriously," Myler said. "As long as hunger continues to be an issue in our city, we will work to combat it."

Florence Davis, President of the Starr Foundation, a nonprofit organization, donated $50,000 to the food drive.

Daily News CEO Bill Holiber, NBC 4 New York President Michael Jack and Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano were also on hand to help launch the drive.

"The city is known for many things how busy everybody is, how fast we talk, how fast we walk, and the great attractions and sights but I believe no place, and I mean no place, has more generous people than we have in New York City," Cassano said.

Holiber said he's hopeful this year's food drive will surpass last year's. According to Holiber, last year's drive provided food for countless victims of Hurricane Sandy.

"The times remain challenging, and I hope we can repeat - and possibly even surpass - the amount of food we collected last year," Holiber said.

City Harvest helps feed 300,000 hungry New Yorkers each week and distributed more than 4,200 turkeys across the five boroughs.

"New York City is one of the few places where poverty continues to increase, and many residents are struggling to put meals on their tables," Stephens said.