Hungry for Change: The State of Food Banks in New York City

Photo Curtesy of Matthew Peterson

The chaos and anxiety of the past few years have worked up quite an appetite for New Yorkers — an appetite, unfortunately, that food pantries have been unable to satisfy. Despite their best efforts, food pantries are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of their communities.

Zac Martin is the Pastor of Justice and Mercy at Next Step Community Church in Brooklyn. He has been involved with the food pantry in various capacities for eight years and is in contact with many food banks in the surrounding area. Every Saturday morning, hundreds of individuals line up in front of the church, encouraged to listen to a short, four-minute message before being brought into the basement food pantry. 

The ramshackle space has a simple beige tile floor and white walls full of exposed pipes that frame scuffed-up wooden doors. The location was the site of a fire in 2010, which left much of what once was a beautiful sanctuary above the basement in a state of disrepair. The balconies and chandeliers hang over piles of boxes, chairs and other church paraphernalia. A single Dunkin’ cup sits atop a grand piano surrounded by orange traffic cones. But while the cluttered, stained-glass-lit room rests undisturbed and silent, its underbelly clanks with the energy of volunteers and hungry individuals.

Jerome Richardson, a Director of Business Services at Hunter College, has consistently volunteered at Next Step since 2015. He appreciates that Next Step is “a little church that has a big reach.” He volunteers because “God has blessed [him] with so much.” 

“If you’re living in New York, you should never be hungry…you should never be hungry,” said Richardson.

The United States is a nation where 60% of the population is $500 away from financial chaos. In other words, if an emergency or surprise fee of $500 or more came up in the life of 60% of Americans, it would mean a massive amount of difficulty and instability. It is, then, essential that some kind of costless food provision system exists. Right now, that system is actualized in food pantries, so the food pantry system must be sustained.

Worn-out foldable tables topped with almost exclusively non-perishable food items line the basement floor. But this isn’t how it used to be. In addition to a message and many goods, there used to be plenty of fresh produce and meat.

Martin remarked that during the COVID-19 pandemic, they had an “abundance” of food. He said that many food pantries are “run by vulnerable [immuno-compromised] populations” who no longer felt it was possible to do the work safely with the threat of COVID-19. As a result, many pantries were shut down. 

This freed up money and supplies for Next Step to acquire a huge amount of food. At the height of the pandemic, they could hand out one bag of chicken, one bag of fish and one bag of ground beef per person. Overall, there was much greater access to fresh perishable goods.

On Oct. 8, 2022, the pantry was able to provide chicken. The fact that there was any meat at all was remarkable to the regular volunteers, who said there hadn’t been meat in many weeks. But, in contrast to the height of COVID-19, when everyone received meat and lots of it, this small amount of chicken ran out before everyone could get through. Previously filled tables with produce were inhabited only by bags of popcorn. 

The cause of the food bank shortage is rather elusive and multifaceted. Inflation, of course, is a major issue. The cost of food has gotten higher, so just as the prices at the grocery store have gone up, food prices for food pantries have gone up. But, according to Martin, instead of increased governmental support, food banks have lost funding at a federal level. Inflation has also affected gas prices. Thus, transporting food has become more expensive and difficult.

Richarson said, “City Harvest and New York City Food Pantry are the people that we buy from….They don’t have enough food, they get charged more, and that trickles down to us.” Because of this, they’ve had “to ration it out.”

Aside from inflation, a lack of workers has hurt food banks. Transportation has become more complicated as there are fewer drivers. Fewer warehouse workers mean more issues with supply. And, as Pastor Martin theorized, perhaps there is a lack of workers because the available jobs are not compensated fairly. 

Martin said he believes people think, “My health — my sanity — is worth more than $15 an hour.” 

He noted that many companies, especially grocery-type companies, profited greatly during COVID but haven’t adjusted the pay for their frontline workers. 

On Oct 8, 2022, Martin was hopeful about a new contract with a new food bank and a new supplier. He said that accessibility would improve under the new agreement, but the perpetual issue is the cost of food and the lack of workers.

Next Step is “not interested in serving thousands superficially—[they’re] interested in serving hundreds well,” Martin said. However, they “just don’t have enough workers to get the food to people.” 

Martin said that all over Brooklyn, there was a dramatic increase in Asian visitors at food banks over the past two years. According to Martin, about 65% of Next Step’s visitors are Asian, many of whom know little English. 

Next Step has many ministries, and not being able to communicate with the people they are seeking to minister to has been a problem.

“Everything we do in this space is about trying to serve and support our people,” Martin said. “We don’t want to just provide bags of food, we want to find out how we can support these folks.” 

They want to know why a person needs to come to the food bank and other necessities they lack, but they cannot do so because of the language barrier. Cantonese and Mandarin translators are in high demand at Brooklyn food banks. 

There are also problems relating to technology. Food bank ordering and check-in systems are becoming increasingly digital, which is often challenging for the elderly who run most food pantries. In addition to translators, food banks have a great need for people who are proficient in technology.

Despite patterns of low funding and insufficient workers, on Nov. 19, 2022, Richardson was able to see some of the positive effects of this imperfect plan–he was hopeful. He said that they’re “Giving people something, but not as much as they’re used to,” but that they’re “actually getting back to almost normal now…the shelves are a little…fuller — not what they were…before, but it’s a process.”

As the tables are folded up, and I mosey out into the windy Brooklyn street, Richardson’s simple, certain words ring in my ears: “It can be monsoon rain, it can be 0 degrees, it could be 100 degrees, people need food.” 

Visit the Next Step Community Church Website to get involved.

Matthew Peterson is the Podcast Editor for the Empire State Tribune. He is a freshman at The King's College studying Journalism, Culture and Society.