Long Island Emergency Food Providers Brace For Life Post-SNAP: 'A Really Horrific Impact'

NASSAU COUNTY, NY. — Long Island food relief providers say they’re ready to meet whatever challenge comes their way next week, as a deadline draws near that would leave almost three million New Yorkers without Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

SNAP benefits are currently not scheduled to go out on Nov. 1, as the USDA has said there won’t be sufficient funds available for the assistance program. That funding shortfall would leave 41.7 million SNAP recipients nationwide short on grocery money.

Governor Kathy Hochul earmarked $30 million in state funds this week in an effort to fill that gap, and Attorney General Letitia James announced New York would be joining 24 other states and Washington, D.C. in a lawsuit seeking to fund food assistance programs through the use of federal contingency funds.

If SNAP benefits don’t go out come November, one resource hungry Long Islanders will have at their disposal is a broad network of food support organizations, including food pantries, soup kitchens and other providers.

Among the largest members of that support system is Island Harvest, an Island-wide food provider with over 300 community partners that feed families on the island. At the helm of this operation is Island Harvest Food Bank President and CEO Randi Shubin Dresner, who said the gap left by SNAP puts food-insecure Long Islanders in a challenging position.

“All of a sudden it’s gone. So, where do you take extra funds when you don’t have extra funds to pay for food?” Shubin Dresner asked in an interview. “There’s no extra income coming in once this happens, and [people] have to pay for transportation to get to work, they have to pay for their rent or their mortgage, they have to pay for any medical bills that they may have.”

Shubin Dresner said the funding gap would impact both the quantity and the quality of food Long Islanders in need could buy, potentially impacting children's learning patterns, adults’ effectiveness at their jobs, and the medical costs people might face regardless of age.

Also serving Long Islanders is Long Island Cares, which provides food and support to its own network of over 374 community-based organizations across Nassau and Suffolk. Long Island Cares Vice President for Government Relations, Advocacy & Social Policy Michael Haynes said an increase in volume at Long Island food pantries would challenge the Island’s emergency food network, even if that increase was under 10 percent..

“There’s 300,000 hungry Long Islanders right now…for some people, that extra $150 a month [provided by SNAP] is all they need, and they don’t need to access their local pantry or their local soup kitchen,” Haynes said. “But even if another 25,000 or 30,000 Long Islanders are thrust into the emergency food system, you know, it is a challenge. It’ll be a challenge for us to keep pace, but we will. We have the resources, we’ve planned this out, we’ll be alright.”

The State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance reports in online resources that 42,729 people receive SNAP benefits in New York's 1st Congressional district, 83,704 people receive SNAP in the 2nd District, 28,015 in the 3rd District and 29,926 in the 4th District. Those reported totals add up to 184,374 Long Islanders receiving SNAP benefits.

For one food pantry coordinator in the Long Island Cares network, the increase in Long Islanders accessing food pantries has already caused a noticeable increase in the size of lines at the pantry. Depending on how many people turn to pantries if SNAP isn’t funded, that coordinator said their pantry may have to reexamine its distributions.

“Where we used to do 10 lbs. or 5 lbs. of potatoes, a pound of this and a pound of that, we might have to literally reduce the amount of poundage we give out. And break down the bags of potatoes, and break down, say, if it’s five pounds of apples, maybe we have to do two pounds of apples. We’re literally looking at that," the provider said.

The provider clarified that the pantry hasn’t begun shrinking its food distribution portions yet, adding that pantry officials have discussed reducing the frequency with which people are allowed to stop by for food distribution.

“The numbers are going to be bananas,” they said in an interview.

Haynes was in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, and said Long Island Cares has expressed concerns about funding to local congressional representatives. While those concerns were brought to politicians, Haynes said they’re far from political.

“We’re a nonpartisan organization, this is not a political thing in any way, shape or form,” Haynes said, “we just want to let our elected officials know that the food banks’ partnership with the federal government is very important, and we don’t ever want to see that disrupted…But, the longer this goes on, the greater the likelihood for a disruption. And we don’t want the people we’re already serving to be hurting even more because they’re no longer receiving their SNAP benefits.”

For one food pantry coordinator at Ark of Salvation in Oceanside, the impact of federal workers missing paychecks during the government shutdown, SNAP benefits being delayed and other economic hardship has put an emphasis on what Ark of Salvation and food pantries like it have already been building.

“We’re basically a community,” the coordinator said. “And people help us a lot, especially when they know the person, and they know they’re doing it for a positive. We have no complaints….God’s been good to us, and we’re blessed. So that’s what’s happening there, you know? The Lord’s going to provide for us.”

From where Shubin Dresner sits, the outlook remains dire if SNAP lapses.

“There’s a cause and effect to every decision that gets made, and this decision that was made to not fund the USDA, not to fund SNAP EBT [Electronic Benefits Transfer] cards, is going to potentially have a really horrific impact,” Shubin Dresner said.