Going Hungry: East End Food Banks See Spike in Demand

More East End residents are turning to local food pantries for help keeping their families fed as ever-rising grocery bills increasingly make it more difficult for many people to make ends meet.

That’s the word from organizations that serve individuals coping with food insecurity in the Twin Forks area — with the East Hampton Food Pantry warning that demand has more than doubled over the past decade and is ballooning this year. The squeeze comes as food prices rose nationwide by 25% from 2019 to 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“The growing number of neighbors in need is concerning,” said Rev. Connie Jones, an East Hampton Food Pantry board member who founded the annual Harvest Food Drive that helps keep shelves stocked at local food pantries. The group says it’s on track to serve 40,000 individuals this year — 10,000 more than last year.

The trend is the local manifestation of food insecurity rates increasing nationwide, with 13.5% of U.S. households — 18 million — counted as food insecure at some point last year, up 10 million from the year prior, according to the USDA. Food insecurity is defined as having insufficient money or resources to acquire enough food to meet the needs of everyone in the household.

Long Island Cares – The Harry Chapin Food Bank, estimates that 234,000 people on Long Island do not have enough food to eat on any given day. Of those, 65,000 are children, veterans, and the homeless. The group supplies 23 East End pantries, helps 11 pantries in the Riverhead area and 12 elsewhere, including a Long Island Cares satellite facility in Hampton Bays.

The number of people Long Island Cares served in its Hampton Bays pantry, largely funded by Bank of America, rose 44% from 2021 to 2022 to nearly 7,000, while meals nearly doubled to just under 90,000.

“While Long Island is home to some of the wealthiest ZIP codes in the nation, one in 10 Long Island families experience food insecurity at times,” said Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest. “This includes some of our most vulnerable neighbors, from newborns to seniors, veterans, and working families. As a community we share a responsibility to make sure that none of our neighbors go without food.”

Hunger relief organizations and local officials are in turn trying to keep up with the rising demand.

Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine, local farmers and Island Harvest launched on Nov. 19 Nourish Suffolk County, a program designed to connect food insecure residents to fresh produce from local farms. Officials said the program, modeled after the likeminded Nourish New York initiative, will provide $25,000 to 10 farms during 2025 through Island Harvest to provide an estimated 208,000 meals to those in need.

To help, Riverhead-based nonprofit RISE Life Services, which staffs a food pantry year round, is also looking for ways to reach more people. Currently, the organization, that works with intellectually and behaviorally disabled individuals, staffs the food pantry each Wednesday. It also delivers food each week to at least 30 families. Around 400 people come each week to receive on average $400 worth of groceries. In addition to donations from LI Cares and Island Harvest, the pantry receives donations of food and is looking to roll out new mobile pantries.

“We’d like to have two refrigerated trucks on the road,” says Executive Director Charles Evdos. “They’re about $80,000, each so we’re looking for help to make this happen. Those trucks would mean delivering perishable foods to more families. The number of those who are food insecure is going up, not down.”

Shubin Dresner says many people don’t earn enough to live on the East End.

“People working two and three jobs are not making enough money. Some are unemployed,” she says. “Many people are one flat tire away from disaster.”

Expensive housing puts additional pressure on people’s ability to buy things on the North and South Forks.

Even gas often costs more on the East End than elsewhere, says Shubin Dresner.

“Those are driving more need, certainly on the East End, and everywhere on Long Island,” Shubin Dresner says of higher food and fuel costs.

Seasonal work also leads to more unemployment during colder months, sharpening the problem.

Rev. S.A. Maddaloni of St. Rosalie’s Church in Hampton Bays said the end of summer can make the issue worse.

“As the tourist/warm weather season ends, many people struggle with underemployment,” he said. “Thanksgiving distribution is this week. Over 100 pre-registered families will be picking up full Thanksgiving dinner. We already have over 100 families pre-registered for Christmas. We begin planning these events in early October.”

St. Ann’s Espiscopal Church in Bridgehampton, one of several places across the region that has a mini food pantry — or as they call it, a “blessings box” — similarly has seen a spike.

“I can tell you it is very busy,” said Jennifer Pike, Parish Administrator, who noted that something is almost always available in the box 24/7 for food emergencies. “It is a very sad situation in our backyards.”