Island Harvest’s Healthy Harvest Farm Provides Nutritious, Culturally Diverse Fruits & Vegetables for Food-Insecure Long Islanders
June 10, 2024A new study shows a 58% increase in people who are food-insecure on Long Island and a 62% increase in the number of food-insecure children —
LONG ISLAND, NY — May 23, 2024 — Responding to Feeding America’s recent annual Map the Meal Gap study showing a sharp jump in food insecurity on Long Island, Island Harvest Food Bank and Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank, the region’s largest hunger-relief organizations have issued a joint press release concerning the report’s findings.
The 2022 Map the Meal Gap report for Long Island estimates that 221,190 people on Long Island are food insecure, an increase of 58.3% from the 2021 estimate of 139,760 people. In 2022, the estimated number of children living with food insecurity is 44,780, a 63.4% increase from the estimated 27,580 children living with food insecurity in 2021.
“Feeding America’s latest Map the Meal Gap study affirms what we already knew here on Long Island: food insecurity is moving in the wrong direction and, ironically, is worse now than during the dark days of the pandemic,” stated Randi Shubin Dresner, president & CEO of Island Harvest. “Far too many Long Islanders are struggling to provide their families with basic, nutritious food on the table mainly due to higher food costs and the region’s high cost of living — and it’s not getting better” Ms. Shubin Dresner added, “We are appealing to our elected representatives at every level for increased funding for, and access to, emergency food programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), and Nourish New York, among others.”
“The data from the Map the Meal Gap report is quite disturbing and should be of concern to government policymakers at all levels of government,” said Paule Pachter, President & CEO of Long Island Cares, Inc. “It seems that every year food banks in New York State must advocate for a permanent increase to support the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) that provides the majority of funding for hunger relief. While we proposed a budget of $64 million for HPNAP, the current NYS budget provides $57.8 million for this vital program, far less than what is needed to respond to a 58.3% increase in need,” stated Pachter. “While the federal government has increased funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) as part of a more than $1 billion increase for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we still must address the deep discrepancies on Long Island when it comes to poverty. The current federal poverty level doesn’t account for the cost of living by region. A one-size-fits-all formula to determine poverty is inadequate, and that’s why Long Island Cares has been advocating for Congress to pass legislation to regionalize the poverty level so that families struggling with food insecurity would receive an increase in their benefits, including SNAP, that would reflect the high cost of living in the Northeast as opposed to a lower cost of living in other states.”
Combined, Island Harvest and Long Island Cares distributed more than 31,000,000 pounds of food to their networks of more than 300 member agencies during the calendar year 2023. If the food banks on Long Island could reach every person who is food insecure with that food, our neighbors would receive about 141 pounds of food a year, less than half a pound of food a day.
“Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap isn’t just a study, it’s a call to action. Everyone from the federal government to New York State to Nassau and Suffolk counties, along with Island Harvest and Long Island Cares, must do more to close the meal gap and ensure no one living on Long Island lives with the trauma of food insecurity,” concluded Ms. Shubin Dresner.