Long Island Cares gets $25M state grant to buy 'culturally relevant food' for over 300 food pantries

Long Island Cares — the Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank — plans to use a $25 million state grant, to be doled out over five years, to buy "culturally relevant food" for its more than 300 member food pantries. 

The funds also will help those 300 agencies with operational costs and to boost Long Island Cares community initiative to encourage the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

The food bank announced it had received the $25 million grant from the New York State Department of Health for two programs: one through the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program, known as HPNAP, and Nourish NY, the latter program established during the pandemic.

The grant, officials said, will help the food bank's network of 325 food pantries, including the five pantries owned and operated by Long Island Cares, provide about 19 million meals over the next five years. The food bank has estimated that 220,000 Long Islanders, including 65,000 children, are food insecure.

"We've been working closely with the [U.S. Department of Agriculture] and Feeding America over the past year to focus on the needs of diverse communities on Long Island," Paule T. Pachter, president and chief executive of Long Island Cares, said in an interview Tuesday. The food bank plans to purchase more kosher foods for those of the Jewish faith, and halal foods for those of the Muslim faith, as well as foods favored by Latinos, people from the Caribbean and Asia, he said.

 "That's the focus of culturally relevant food."

Pachter said the grant would provide the food bank with $5 million per year over five years. He said nearly $2.9 million annually was from the Nourish NY program, which could only be spent on food grown and distributed in New York. "That allows us to buy fresh produce from [across] New York State," including from Long Island growers. The money also will enable the food bank to buy from Long Island fisheries, he added.

"We've been working very closely with New York State, both the Health Department and the Department of Agriculture, to make sure we have enough money to support Long Island," Pachter said.

Additionally, $1.9 million annually is from the Hunger Prevention & Nutrition Program. Pachter said that money would help finance the food bank's efforts to help many of the food pantries it supplies with funding for things like refrigerators, even shelving, as well as payments to staff or stipends to volunteers. He said there were state eligibility criteria, though. "Out of our 325 agencies, I think about 80 to 85 percent of them meet the criteria for HPNAP."

Pachter said the food bank would use $121,650 annually to finance its "Just Say Yes" program in which nutritionists go into communities to promote eating more fruits and vegetables.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie