Cuts hit food sources hard

Local services see less USDA aid

By Erick Slattery and Manor Ink Staff

Sullivan County, NY – The cupboards are bare, but children still have to eat.

The United States Dept. of Agriculture has been the main source of food that supplied the nation’s food banks, pantries and school meal programs – that is, until the current administration in Washington, DC, ordered the previously-approved USDA budget cut by $4.5 billion. Now many of the programs that feed people in need are left scrambling to find funding.

Food pantries all over New York State have already been affected by the budget cuts. According to Tom Narducci, CEO of the Regional Food Bank in Latham, NY, “More than 355,000 people, 12.2 percent of the population in the Regional Food Bank’s 23-county service area, are food insecure, meaning they don’t always know where they will find their next meal. A staggering 15.4 percent of children in the region experience food insecurity. The new data shows that food insecurity continues to grow, with an additional 23,210 individuals in the Regional Food Bank’s service area.

“In Sullivan County, food insecurity is at a regional high of 14 percent. That means 11,120 people in the county could go hungry tomorrow, including one out of five, or 3,380, children,” Narducci said.

Narducci explained that the federal government is cutting the Emergency Food Assistance Program, known as TEFAP, and that will reduce the availability of food to individuals in need in the region. The Regional Food Bank expects to lose 200 tractor-trailers delivering an estimated 8 million pounds of produce, dairy products and other food because of the $1 billion cuts to the program that were announced nationally by the USDA.

‘It’s about neighbors in need’

“Last year the Regional Food Bank received over 400 tractor trailers of food from the USDA,” Narducci said. “This year, 27 of those trailers – 954,000 pounds of food – have already been cancelled. These cuts represent a 49-percent reduction in TEFAP food supply, potentially resulting in 2 million fewer meals for local families.”

Emergency food assistance is not the only resource that has been affected. “The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP, formerly food stamps, is also facing severe cuts,” Narducci added. “SNAP is a critical resource for children, seniors and adults with disabilities across our region, many of whom live on low, modest or fixed incomes.”

Narducci urges people to contact their members of Congress and demand action. “This is not about politics. It’s about our neighbors in need. Hunger doesn’t wait. Neither can we.”

According to sullivanny.gov, there are 38 food pantries in Sullivan County. Fran Muller is the administrator for the Shepherd’s Food Pantry in Roscoe. With the help of local volunteers, she packs and distributes boxes of food to families in need once a month. The boxes contain a nutritional balance of protein, dairy, produce and carbohydrates, and last month, they fed 97 families consisting of 70 senior citizens, 159 adults and 99 children.

Muller spoke about the effects of the extensive budget cuts from the USDA on the pantry’s ability to feed those in need. She said that before the USDA budget cuts, she would always go first to the USDA to order food for the pantry, because the USDA food was free and nutritious.

Increasingly sparse resources

The availability of produce, eggs, dairy and meat from the USDA has dwindled for the last few months, and as of last month the USDA offered very few options, which is a stark contrast from the previous ten years Muller has volunteered at the pantry. There used to be an abundance of healthy options to select from, but last month there were only a few bags of candy – no other food to be had.

Muller writes a grant every year for the pantry, and every year the pantry’s need grows. In March, the grant money that supports the pantry ran out, and it is now surviving on generous donations from individuals and businesses in the local community. Muller is waiting to find out if the new grant for this year will be funded.

“I don’t know how much longer this food pantry will be sustainable,” she said. This was amplified by the empty refrigerators and partially empty shelves in the storage room, which are usually completely full. Muller mentioned that in previous years she has made appeals to the community and they have always been incredibly generous and willing to donate. She worries that now more people will need food just when there is less to be had.

Traditionally Roscoe Central School students have volunteered their time during the school day to help carry in heavy boxes and produce, and distribute them to the families the pantry serves. With the merger of the school districts, and the high schoolers all going to Livingston Manor next year, Muller worries that the boxes of canned goods will be too heavy for younger children to carry and they will lose their help. Although the pantry has a team of long-time volunteers, Muller noted that most are senior citizens, and the pantry is in need of new volunteers for the third Wednesday of each month.

No summer food programs for kids

The Summer Food Service Program or SFSP serves meals during the summer months, without charge, to children 18 years old and younger who are in need. In previous years, the USDA has funded SFSP by reimbursing schools that participate in the program. BOCES, the Liberty Central School District and the Monticello Central School District have all confirmed they will be participating in SFSP this summer. For now, at least, this program has not been affected by the budget cuts that are decimating other food insecurity programs.

Neither Roscoe Central School nor Livingston Manor Central School will be participating in the summer meals program. “We are not operating the summer program this summer as in both buildings we have capital projects going on that affect both cafeterias. We will be doing the summer program next year,” said Director of Food Services Stephen Rogers. Neither school’s website has information regarding SFSP, or that it will not be available this year.

There is a frustrating lack of centralized information about which other schools in Sullivan County and in New York State will participate in SFSP. The USDA’s own website, usda.gov, has a tool called “Summer Meals for Kids Site Finder,” but it does not show even a single participating school in New York State, despite there being many sites in neighboring Pennsylvania and across the rest of the country.

The USDA website lists the NY State Education Department as the administrator for the program. However, a search of the NYSED website only yields one article from Jan. 31, announcing that applications for the program are open. In previous years, the website pointed students and parents to the USDA’s “Summer Meals For Kids Site Finder” tool, though it still shows no results in New York. The county’s website, sullivanny.gov also contains no results for the Summer Food Service Program.

Adults and children in poverty deserve to eat, but poor communication, fewer resources and dwindling supplies make it more difficult for aid organizations to feed them.