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| New Efforts to End Hunger on Long Island |
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| News - Nassau County News |
| Written by Amber Leon |
| Monday, 24 May 2010 00:00 |
 Long Island Cares Inc., The Harry Chapin Food Bank, located in Hauppauge, is one of the largest Food Banks on Long Island. According to Paule Pachter, executive director at Long Island Cares, government funding has either become stagnant or reduced. For government-funded food banks, pantries and soup kitchens, their purchase ability -- food bought by the organization as opposed to donated -- is considerably down. For LI Cares, where more food is purchased than is donated by the food bank, a recent cut of $1.23 million has had a direct impact on this food bank. “The problem is although the funding has been reduced, the numbers of people are not being reduced,” said Pachter. Pachter said that about 4 percent of their funding comes from the public, but that it isn’t enough to supplement the reductions.
This table at Island Harvest, located in Mineola, houses all the fliers for upcoming events, pamphlets on programs offered, and awards for the accomplishments they have made in the community thus far. (NNL Photo by Amber Leon) Charity-based food banks such as Island Harvest are not feeling these budget cuts directly. Migdalia Otero, vice president of operations and programs at Island Harvest, said they do not purchase food and everything is donated. “Everything from top to bottom has been donated to us; this building, the phone, the light,” said Otero. “I have to say that in the last several years, with this recession, the community has been very generous to us. We’ve seen an increase in our funding," said Otero. “And I think the reason being is because the people that are giving, they’re looking at it as it may be me one day so let me help,” Otero added.The only funded program is their backpack program, which provides four meals for the weekend to 1,500 children to insure consistency and healthiness, as children immune systems are lower than the average adult. The Hunger Report documented that from the beginning of the recession in December 2007, the unemployment rate jumped from 3.9 percent, in Long Island, to 7.5 percent by June of 2009. “One woman had to take a $20,000 cut in order to keep her job and she came to us because she was feeding her children bananas for dinner,” said Otero. Island Harvest holds many education classes and they help people find stable employment or ways to fill in the gaps of lowered incomes. According to Otero, they will be launching their second annual summer feeding program in eight sites where they will be feeding 800 kids a day. Island Harvest has also recently partnered with the Mets to run a fundraiser to end hunger on Long Island. Both LI Cares and Island Harvest not only supply food for the community, but they also provide information and assistance in applying for government programs such as WIC (Women, Infants and children) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Officials said some people qualify for these programs, but haven't tapped into them. LI Cares recently launched a program called the Mobile Outreach Resource Enterprise (MORE) Van, a mobile unit created to reach more people as the number is growing and the ability to get to pantries is becoming more difficult. The MORE Van transports about 500 pounds of food. Not only is food distributed from the van, but workers assist people with applications for food stamps or other entitlement programs. “The people that come to visit us when we have the Mobile Outreach Unit out in the community are people that absolutely know nothing. They’ve never been impacted by hunger before, they have no idea where to turn, they’re frightened, they’re puzzled as to what this is all about, they’ve never gone to ask for emergency assistance before, and this is the first time and it’s quite traumatic," said Patcher. “Nassau County has several incorporated villages like Hempstead where there are issues of food insecurity and hunger,” said Pachter. Island Harvest may be in a small building with very few salaried workers, but they have an extremely strong volunteer base and have provided 60 million pounds of food, 47 million meals, since 1992. (Photo by Amber Leon) According to Cynthia Sucich, director of communications for The INN, Interfaith Nutrition Network, its main soup kitchen in Hempstead witnessed a 40 percent increase in the past 7-to-8 months. Sucich said the winter proved very difficult for them, and that at peak they served about 600 people each day. Sucich said The INN relies heavily on volunteers for support. “Without our volunteers, we cannot do what we do,” said Sucich. Sucich said that they are pretty good with volunteers, but food donations are a different story. According to Sucich, they give out grocery bags for the weekend when they are closed, but its challenging with declining donations as many people donated to disaster-relief in Haiti and Chile this spring. William Rheingold, 73, is a volunteer that has remained faithful since the recession. He has volunteered at the Mary Brennan INN, a part of The Interfaith Nutrition Network, for 4 or 5 years, he said.“More and more people out of work and more and more people are disadvantaged and they need more and more food, more donations, and more volunteer work,” said Rheingold. According to Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano, the rise in hunger across Long Island is recognized by the government. “At Nassau County Department of Social Services, we are experiencing an increase in the number of people applying for and receiving food stamp benefits,” said Mangano. “Comparing the one-year period ending March 31, 2010 with the previous year, the food stamp caseload has increased 32 percent. We expect this increase to continue.” To help aid in the fight against hunger, according to Mangano, Nassau County is one of 22 counties throughout the state that accepts online food stamp applications. Also, the Department of Social Services' main offices now open earlier, at 8 a.m., and they opened two outstations in Westbury and Hempstead to accommodate the increasing number of applicants. Current programs at LI Cares include:
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