Local pantries struggle to meet needs

Updated Oct. 16

After the monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) grant that Elizabeth Garcia received from the government was slashed last month, she found herself spending less time at the supermarket and more time at local food pantries.

A single mom, Ms. Garcia, who lives in Marble Hill with her 16- and 6-year-old sons, was forced to give up her job when she had surgery about seven weeks ago. She said that more than half of the benefits she received from SNAP — formerly known as food stamps — were cut during that time, leaving her with about $80 a month for food.

“It’s not enough,” said Ms. Garcia, 44, as she waited on a recent Tuesday morning for her monthly grocery bags of canned beans, tuna and vegetables at a food pantry at the Church of The Mediator on West 231st Street. “It’s hard because I have to do everything in my house. It’s a struggle.”

Ms. Garcia, who got back to full-time work on Oct. 10, is one of the nearly 1.9 million New Yorkers who rely on SNAP benefits for sustenance. Last November, the government announced plans to reduce spending for food stamps by $5 billion in the 2014 fiscal year. Earlier this year, President Barack Obama signed the U.S. Farm Bill, which would revamp federal policies related to agriculture and cut more than $8 billion in food stamp benefits over the next decade. 

Increases at food pantries

With these new financial strains, more low-income families and seniors are heading to local food pantries, like the one the Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Marble Hill (KRMH) Food and Hunger Project runs at the Church of the Mediator, or other programs to combat “food insecurity” or food deprivation. 

When the Food Bank of New York surveyed 522 food pantries and 138 soup kitchens in New York after the SNAP cuts, 85 percent of those surveyed reported an increase in visitors that November compared to the same month the previous year. 

But one visit to the pantry is often not enough for some families. In addition to getting groceries from the KRMH pantry, Ms. Garcia also receives groceries at the Yorkville Common Pantry in Harlem twice a month.