65,000 more Long Islanders in need of food assistance coming to pantries, soup kitchens and food banks: officials

It was a moment that almost broke her heart.

Answering the door after hours last week at the Gerald J. Ryan Outreach Center food pantry in Wyandanch, executive director Noelle Campbell found a man seeking emergency food provisions. When she asked what kind of items he might want, his answer startled her.

"Anything," he said.

Earlier this week, the New York Health Foundation said more than 1 in 10 New Yorkers — or, more than 2 million statewide — are now threatened daily by food insufficiency, numbers surpassing the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those numbers, NYHealth found, are even higher for Black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

Across Long Island, Long Island Cares CEO Paule T. Pachter said Friday, those numbers have increased by about 30% since the end of 2024, with about 65,000 more Long Islanders in need of food assistance coming to pantries, soup kitchens and food banks in Nassau and Suffolk — that, in addition to the estimated 221,000 already in need, as identified by Feeding America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"It's not that the crisis is coming," Pachter said. "I would say, from what we're seeing, we're in crisis now."

Next week, Pachter and other national food bank operators will meet to discuss strategies at the Feeding America Spring Leadership Conference in Atlanta. Among the issues are federal funding cuts being leveled by the Trump administration, as well as the impacts of the current tariff wars.

"This issue we're confronting," Pachter said, "is right now there is no clarity. Our questions aren't being answered — so who are we supposed to turn to? We know we've lost funding, but how do you cope?"

It is estimated the USDA will cut about $1 billion this year in funding for the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement Program and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement — funding that supplies food for school students and food banks across America.

Last month, Newsday reported that Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank had an expected 250,000-pound food allocation from the USDA canceled without explanation. And the other Long Island food bank, Island Harvest, reported that $1.7 million in funding for a senior meal program had been "frozen" by the feds.

"Hunger among New Yorkers has reached its highest level in years, even higher than during the worst of the COVID pandemic," the president and CEO of NYHealth, David Sandman, said in a statement.  

For more than 50 years, the Ryan Outreach Center has operated on the grounds of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church on Straight Path. And Campbell has helped run those operations for the past 16.

The pantry provides assistance for about 15,000 in the surrounding communities annually, one of the largest pantries on the Island. In a given month, Campbell said, the center might see 10 new households come to the center seeking emergency provisions.

About a month or so ago, that changed.

"We began to notice an influx of a new demographic," she said. "Mainly males, working men who have jobs, who were coming here to support either themselves and/or their families — an increase of 43 new households in February alone. ... They were men with jobs, suddenly impacted by an increase in the cost of health insurance, expenses, all sorts of causes."

Campbell fears how her pantry can navigate the added stress of new demands while also dealing with financial cuts, she said.

"We too are impacted," she said, noting that an expected $45,000 in funding through the FEMA Emergency Food Shelter Program has been frozen — "and, we're not certain we're going to get that this year."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”