Long Island Cares, Island Harvest see rising costs, growing need, decline in donations

For the past year, Anthony and Teresa Caruso of Huntington Station have turned to a Long Island Cares food pantry to supplement their grocery needs.

Both are seniors on fixed incomes — Social Security and Anthony's "small pension" as a retired senior technician for Con Edison. Groceries from the food pantry give the couple some much needed financial wiggle room.

"I would throw a figure out there of maybe $20 a week, maybe $25, give or take," Anthony Caruso, 75, said of the savings to the couple's grocery bills by utilizing the pantry's free food. "Well, it helps us a lot," he added, "being as a supplement. Whatever we get here, obviously, you don’t have to buy."

As a result, Teresa Caruso, 65, said, the savings allow them more flexibility when they go food shopping. "We wind up buying more variety of things," she said.

Besides, she added, the fresh produce they can get from Island Cares' food pantry in Huntington Station is welcome: "They have good stuff."

The Carusos are among a growing number of Long Islanders turning in recent years to food banks such as Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank and Island Harvest, as well as local food pantries across the Island. Officials said they're currently seeing an increase in demand amid rising costs for essentials like food and gasoline.

Rising costs are affecting the food banks' operating budgets as well and officials worry that donations are down.

"Because of inflation and because of the increase in the cost of goods, which is estimated at increasing by approximately 35% … that 35% increase in the cost of goods is being passed onto food banks," said Paule T. Pachter, chief executive of Long Island Cares.

Pachter said that in September 2021, Long Island Cares "purchased 2.6 million pounds of food. Compared to this September, where we had to buy more food because the need was high, we purchased 2.8 million pounds of food."

The costs have risen accordingly. Pachter said the food bank budgeted $1.9 million for food between January and September of 2022 and "we actually spent $2.7 million."

Jessica Rosati, Long Island Cares' chief programs officer, said the organization provided 813,385 meals from Jan. 1 to Oct. 21 this year, up from 496,704 meals the year before at its five satellite food pantries.

In addition to the Huntington Station food pantry, Long Island Cares operates pantries in Bethpage, Freeport, Lindenhurst and Hampton Bays.

They served 57,229 people from Jan. 1 through Oct. 31, 2021, compared with 90,405 for the same time period in 2022. Those numbers are duplicative because people come to the food pantries monthly.

'People need this to survive'

Rosati said Long Island Cares' food insecurity study this year found that people come to the pantries "because of the cost of food. They can’t afford it. It’s a supplement. People need this to survive." 

Pachter estimated there are about 230,000 Long Islanders who are food insecure, based on a July 2022 report from Feeding America, a nonprofit network of more than 200 food banks nationwide, which uses government data on people living below or near the federal poverty line who are eligible to receive federal government food subsidies. He said that number totals 161,000 for Nassau and Suffolk. 

Another 69,000 food insecure Long Islanders come to the pantries but aren't eligible for government food subsidies, Pachter added.

They are, he said, "what we refer to as the working poor. They may not be eligible for SNAP [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program]. They're not at the poverty level, but they're not earning enough, so they’re driving to the food pantry for assistance."

In addition to its own food pantries, Long Island Cares supplies food to more than 325 member nonprofit agencies.

Skyrocketing need, abundant challenges

Randi Shubin Dresner, president and chief executive of Island Harvest, said in an interview the food bank was "working hard to maintain the level of output we had during the pandemic," when she said Island Harvest "literally was doubling everything."

And in a follow-up statement, Dresner added: "Continued increased need across Long Island, coupled with skyrocketing food costs and supply chain issues, have added additional challenges for Island Harvest to ensure that we can get food to those in need."

She cited everything from the cost of food to fuel and the impact all of it has had on the food bank's partners.

"The cost of food has increased by as much as 40% over the past year," Dresner said. "The cost of fuel for our trucks to pick up and deliver food has increased by more than 94% since last year. Our nonprofit partners are unable to rely on donated food as they may have in the past. Thousands of Long Island households are caught in cycles of food insecurity and depend on Island Harvest’s services as a 'vital component' of how they feed themselves and their families."

The Carusos said they only started coming to Long Island Cares after hearing about it from military veterans they knew. All of the nonprofit's five pantries cater to veterans on Tuesdays. 

"I think it’s a good thing that they make this available. And I also think very highly that they support the veterans, which I admire very much," said Anthony Caruso, a Vietnam War veteran, recalling a time when veterans from that war were disparaged by many in society. 

Dresner said Island Harvest recently surveyed its 300 member nonprofit agencies to which it supplies food and found "90% of them said they have had to turn away clients in the past three months because they didn’t have enough food. They have seen an increase in the number of people coming to them for food."

Dresner considered the financial pressures some people face: "If you spend an extra $30 at the gas pump and $50 at the supermarket, where is that extra money coming from?"

She said the growing costs come amid diminished  state and federal grant money the food bank received during the height of the pandemic.

"We are spending well over $1 million a quarter on food, which is a tremendous increase since before the pandemic," Dresner said.

The Thanksgiving season serves as a crucial time for food pantries as they seek donations.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced last week that he was pairing the county's celebration of Long Island native Madison Beer, a singer-songwriter, with a food drive "to create a culture" of giving. The 5 p.m. celebration is scheduled for Nov. 23 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. It's free but requires a donation of at least one nonperishable food item. Prospective attendees need to register at nassaucountyny.gov.

The Long Island Council of Churches, which receives items from both food banks and operates its own food pantry in Freeport, reports increased need as well.

 "From January to September 2021, we fed 38,082 people," said Anthony Achong, the council's director of administration and operations and a deacon at Community Presbyterian Church of Malverne. He said that number rose to 46,463 during the same time period in 2022. 

He said people are allowed to come to the pantry twice a month. "It’s hard to figure out a nonduplicated number" of visits, he said.

The council also faces a reduction in donations from pre-pandemic levels. There's hope, though.

"What we’re finding is, they’ve dropped but they’re starting to come back up," Achong said.

"This is our busiest season of the year," said Dresner of Island Harvest. "Although people are hungry 12 months a year, this is the time people think about helping. We have a goal of 18,500 turkeys to distribute. If people need help, we can help them," she said.

But she noted the food bank "could use their help," too, in the form of the public's donations.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie