BY ANNA SANDERS
New Yorkers receive groceries at the Reaching Out Community Services food pantry in 2017, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Coronavirus could close most of New York’s food pantries in a matter of days even as the city’s reliance on them deepens during the pandemic, nonprofit heads warned Thursday.
Three dozen lawmakers called on Albany leaders for $25 million in emergency food funding to meet the new demand and increased costs caused by the pandemic, when prices for basics like milk and eggs soar and thousands of New Yorkers are out of work from business closures meant to stop the spread of the deadly virus.
Some 15% of small food pantries have already shut down, according to initial estimates, and more are expected to do the same in the coming weeks. Many of the pantries and community kitchens in a city database for New Yorkers who “need food immediately” are already closed.
“We are in the middle of the most serious emergency food crisis in New York’s history. If New York state doesn’t act, within days most of New York’s food pantries will close. That is an impending disaster,” said David Greenfield, CEO of Met Council, which has a network of dozens of food pantries across the city. “Needy homebound seniors literally don’t have access to food. People who have lost their jobs are calling us and begging for food.”
