By Marlyn Montilla
A new report from the nonprofit Metropolis Harvest indicates that New York City food banks received twice as many visits from families with children last year as in 2019.
Food rescue group’s annual report on childhood hunger highlights an ongoing food crisis that has not abated since the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic and which, according to advocates, could worsen due to cuts to federal food aid.
“We are seeing a persistently high need for food assistance, especially among families with children in New York City,” said Jilly Stephens, CEO of Metropolis Harvest. “The line we see at our distribution center in Sunset Park is incredible.”
Metropolis Harvest said that one in four children does not have access to enough food reliably. About 42% of families with children indicated they need more money to cover household food needs, which represents an increase of 24% compared to the situation before the pandemic.
“Before the pandemic, food banks primarily served families who were unemployed or receiving benefits, while after the pandemic we find that a good portion of the people who come to our food bank work or study,” said Edwin Pacheco, executive director of Redemption Red Hook Meals Pantry.
“The cost of living in New York City is exorbitant,” he said.
Food policy advocates are bracing for even longer lines next month when New Yorkers who don’t meet new federal work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), they could begin to lose their benefits.
Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump passed a tax and spending measure last summer that added new work rules for SNAP recipients, who have three months to comply before benefits are taken away, Gothamist reported.
The aforementioned changes imply that families with children aged 14 or older will have to work 20 hours a week, volunteer or be studying to keep their monthly benefits. About 1.8 million New Yorkers, including 500,000 children, receive the SNAP program.
Stephens asserted that The federal government shutdown in November of last year and the unprecedented two-week shutdown of SNAP benefits highlighted how important the program is to families and how much pressure the food system could be under. of the city without him.
New Yorkers stopped eating, paying their bills, and crowded soup kitchens and food banks. Supermarkets reported a drop in sales and some emergency food providers ran out of supplies or had to turn people away.
“The frequency with which we will see people coming, the distance they will travel to go to a food bank, a food distribution center or a mobile market that may be outside their immediate area, those are the types of things that you start to see when you put pressure on this network of food programs,” Stephens said. “Families will have to go further.”
Stephens said Metropolis Harvest is preparing for a possible increase in demand in the coming months at the 400 partner food banks it supplies.
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