It's our duty to help fight Long Island's increasing hunger

In the last quarter of the year, from October through December, food banks across the country experience major spikes in donations as the winter holidays approach.

At this time of the year, many of our neighbors are in the holiday spirit and often think of people in the community in need. The public’s awareness of children who might not receive a holiday gift, or the thought of a homeless family lacking warm coats, or the idea that a family might not be able to enjoy a holiday meal weigh heavily on the hearts of those of us willing and able to help the less fortunate.

This holiday season an additional 220,000 Long Islanders are turning to Long Island Cares — The Harry Chapin Food Bank for emergency food assistance — due to COVID-19. The pandemic has led to record job losses for tens of thousands of Long Islanders who live paycheck to paycheck and many of them don’t have adequate savings or other resources.

In the last nine months, our network of 374 local food pantries, soup kitchens and other emergency food programs has witnessed a 58% increase in the number of people struggling with food insecurity. The numbers of hungry Long Islanders has increased from 259,000 in March to 480,000 today, stretching the budgets and resources of many essential nonprofits. We’ve all seen the images of vehicles and people waiting on food-distribution lines just to receive enough food to feed their families for three to five days. For those fortunate enough not to have to wait in food lines, their help has been underscored by the millions of dollars donated to America’s food banks and by record numbers of people volunteering to help feed people in need.

Since March, Long Island Cares has delivered 14,559,497 pounds of food that provided nearly 12 million meals to our neighbors in need. Also, 148,106 people visited the food bank for the first time because of COVID-19, with an additional 73,285 people coming to our five satellite locations and our pet pantry in need of food assistance. Without federal help to states and local governments so businesses can recover and people can go back to work, these numbers will continue to increase.

In 1978, then-President Jimmy Carter convened a Presidential Commission on Hunger that was proposed by Harry Chapin. Sadly, the recommendations were never implemented by the Reagan administration and no administration since has put in place a long-term study on food insecurity. With the number of those in need on the rise, Long Island Cares has reached out to President-elect Joe Biden to urge the incoming administration to convene a Presidential Commission on Food Insecurity to review all programs to help reduce food insecurity and harness available resources to lift people out of poverty.

We need public hearings to develop new ways our nation can better understand why food insecurity continues to be the unfortunate reality for many Americans across the country.

Paule T. Pachter is chief executive of Long Island Cares, one of the region’s most comprehensive hunger assistance organizations.