Rising food insecurity: The need to end hunger has only gotten greater

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Food insecurity was expected to diminish in a post-pandemic world, experts believed during COVID. Instead, they are seeing the opposite.

Food banks on Long Island are experiencing greater demand, and are strategizing to purchase and distribute more pounds of food today versus a year ago.

“During COVID, there were massive delays in the supply chain,” said Paule Pachter, president and CEO of Long Island Cares Inc. – The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank, headquartered in Hauppauge. And while “that’s improved, the prices are raised,” and that is putting a strain on those helping to alleviate food insecurity, not just on Long Island, but across the country, he said.

Pachter is seeing a need that is “pretty close to crisis-type numbers where our partners are reporting anywhere from a 35% to 70% increase in the number of people coming for food assistance.”

Food insecurity is defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a “lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.”

On Long Island, 221,000 people are food insecure, with an estimated 65,000 of them children, according to the most recent statistics from Long Island Cares.

Currently, food insecurity is growing at a time of increased costs at grocery stores, gas pumps and beyond. It is further exacerbated by the termination of government-funded COVID support, as well as newly arrived immigrants who have a connection to families already on Long Island, experts said.

At the same time, people struggle to pay bills, feed their families and move on from the pandemic when they might have lost jobs, said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest Food Bank in Melville.

Across the five food banks that Long Island Cares supports, the organization has purchased and received 37.59% more food than it did a year ago. This includes items from partnering grocery chains such as Stop & Shop, King Kullen, ShopRite and others, as well as Amazon, Walmart and Costco. The increase also accounts for federal commodities received from the USDA.

All told, Long Island Cares has distributed 28.4% more food than it did a year ago to its pantries, partner pantries as well as soup kitchens, senior centers, veterans’ facilities and other locations.

Others agree that food insecurity is growing.

“We have seen a 65% increase in requests for meals since last year,” said Dana Lopez, director of marketing and communications at The INN (Interfaith Nutrition Network) in Hempstead.

“Since before the pandemic until this year [2019-2023], we’ve had a 346% increase in the number of meals requested,” Lopez said. “We have a 169% increase in the number of people from 2021 to 2023. Many of these new people are taking food for people unable to walk to
The INN.”

That new demand, Lopez said, is “because the increase in the cost of food and the loss of government COVID support funding, which had helped many people living in poverty.”

The increase in food insecurity comes as the end-of-year holidays approach, and food drives ramp up. Island Harvest, for example, estimates the organization needs “well over 60,000 turkeys,” Dresner said, adding that the organization had originally anticipated 23,000 turkeys, chickens, tofurkey, and hams. “We’re 37,000 short,” she said.

But partnerships, such as the one with Bethpage Federal Credit Union, help. This year, for example, the credit union launched a new corporate challenge to see which employer donates the most turkeys, benefiting Island Harvest.

Programs, such as New York State’s Nourish New York, also help, Pachter said.  Through this program, food banks are able to purchase from the state’s agricultural community, including “Long Island Grown” produce and more.

“We spend over $200,000 to help Long Island fishermen under Nourish New York, and can buy fresh fish,” he said.

Still, food banks face other challenges.

For example, in the last year, “a handful of foundations” that had supported Long Island Cares dissolved after their founders had died, bringing a close to a stream of funding, Pachter said.

Those facing food insecurity often require additional support.

“Anytime there is an increase in the cost of basic necessities, it impacts people living in poverty and those who lack the money necessary to meet their basic needs,” said Heather Edwards, executive director of the Allied Foundation, which offers a diaper bank and period products. “Currently, the government does not recognize diapers and period products as essential needs, and no program–not SNAP, WIC or Medicaid–allocates dollars for their purchase.”

She added that diapers and period supplies are “essential needs and national public health issues. No one should have to choose between buying food over basic necessities such as diapers that keep their babies healthy, and period supplies to manage their menstruation.”

All of this requires raising awareness, developing new strategies, and continued advocacy.

“We think the government needs to take another look at funding support for low-income individuals and families, including emergency food stamps, and consider temporary work permits for those seeking asylum,” Lopez said.

Pachter would like to see regional costs of living factored into the family poverty level, which configures into Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program eligibility. For example, “$51,000 a year for a family of four gets you a lot more in Alabama than it will on Long Island,” he said.

Island Harvest works to empower people to “help them understand the nutritional value of food” and its “impact on health,” Dresner said, adding that positive outcomes can include lower expenses on medication. The organization also has a “holiday hero” program where businesses become food collection sites across the region where trained volunteers can get food faster to families in need.

“The corporate community on Long Island is very generous,” Pachter said.

He recalled the days of his organization’s namesake Harry Chapin, when the legendary folk singer from Huntington “went around personally” to Long Island businesses in his quest to end hunger.

“Chapin would tell executives ‘These are the people you live with–you gotta step up,” Pachter said. “And they’re still doing it.”

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