Exactly How Many People Are We Talking About Here?

I think that it would rather surprise most of you with just how many people suffer from food insecurity in Nassau County, and the world. Ever since Covid-19 was brought to our country, food insecurity skyrocketed. Record numbers of unemployment claims, combined with higher rates of attendance at food banks across the nation, proved that food insecurity was, and is, a serious problem. As we saw decreases in job availability, people were losing money but still needed food – food pantries stepped up to the task. During the epidemic, 54% of New Yorkers reported them, or a member of their house, losing income because of the epidemic. And the data showing the rate of food scarcity among the population for those who had lost household income was 9% higher than those who did not. This was all in October 2020, and it has barely gotten any better.

Clearly, all of this loss of income due to the epidemic would trigger increases of numbers of people who need food. In New York, around 11% of people reported that their households were accessing free meals or groceries in July, 2020. Food pantries of course answered the call and Long Island Cares, an amazing food pantry, wrote that there was a 73% increase of food insecurity on Long Island, and from March to September (2020), they had provided over 10 million meals.

Of course this was all back in 2020 but the numbers did not improve much as still 10.5% of households in New York still report food insecurity, 67,500+ residents in the majority of Nassau County still lack quality access to fresh food, and 67,500+ residents in Nassau County live over half a mile from the nearest supermarket and 23% of these areas report low access to transportation to these supermarkets.

Overall, I think that it is safe to say that due to Covid-19, food insecurity is as big an issue as ever and food pantries are one of the best things to help combat this major issue. First hand experiences at pantries like Community Solidarity and Shelter Rock Church Food Pantry have shown me how big this issue is, and how helpful food pantries can be.