(Gothamist) New Report Says Over A Third Of Food Pantries And Kitchens Closed During Height Of Pandemic

Link to original story: https://gothamist.com/food/new-report-says-over-third-food-pantries-and-kitchens-closed-during-height-pandemic

As the pandemic reached a peak in New York City in April, over a third of food pantries across the five boroughs were closed at a time they were most needed, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Food pantry closures peaked at 39 percent citywide in mid-April, especially in neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by the virus, according to the report by Food Bank for New York City, the city’s major hunger-relief group. Pantries temporarily closed because seniors had helped run a majority of them, a spokesperson told Gothamist.

Of the 806 kitchens and pantries, 190 of them closed since the start of the virus, according to the NY Times.

“This virus represents an extreme and unprecedented hardship across our entire city but especially for our financially and medically vulnerable neighbors, and it is absolutely critical that we rise to the challenge for them,” said Food Bank for New York City president and CEO Leslie Gordon.

The Bronx and Queens saw the highest number of pantry and soup kitchen closures during the pandemic compared to the other boroughs, according to the report. Half of the pantries were closed in the Bronx while nearly 40 percent were closed in Queens. All food pantries serving Pelham Bay, Co-Op City and Schuylerville in the Bronx and Bayside, Douglaston, and Little Neck in Queens were closed.

Those communities had been identified by the Food Bank for New York City as areas with large meal gaps because of insufficient resources to buy food.

Brooklyn also faced a large number of food pantry closures. Out of the 257 food pantries and kitchens in the borough, 93 were closed and a vast majority of those served communities with large meal gaps, according to the report.

Additionally, pantries and kitchens across the city saw a rise in the number of first-time visitors. Of those surveyed, 91 percent of visitors were first-timers, according to the report, while 71 percent of visitors were families with children.

Monthly visits to pantries doubled from 2,000 on average before COVID-19 hit to 4,050 in April.

To accommodate the increased demand, food pantries extended hours and served a greater amount of food by nearly three quarters and offered pantry bags that could last anywhere from two weeks to a month so people wouldn’t have to leave their homes as much. Home delivery accounted for 45 percent.

But they struggled to keep up with the increase in demand. Nearly half of all surveyed had to turn people away in April because of lack of food, a major increase since they started tracking the number in September, according to the report. Thirty-one percent of pantries said that they ran out of food at least once a week. One in five reported that they ran out of food at least twice a week.

Many food pantries surveyed reported that they served people from other boroughs. Sixty-seven percent of Manhattan pantries said they served people from the Bronx while food pantries in the Bronx noticed a similar shift, serving residents from Manhattan.

Today, only 24 percent of food pantries are closed, said a spokesperson for Food Bank for New York City.

“This is the new normal for New York City, and Food Bank is doing everything possible to meet the need that exists today and the need that will continue to exist in the coming weeks, months, and years,” Gordon said.