Annual Hunger Survey Report Released: "Not Too Big To Fail"

New Report: NYC Child Hunger Soars While Local Feeding Programs Close Due to Federal Cuts

The 2011 Hunger Survey Report, “Not Too Big to Fail: As NYC Hunger Soars, Feeding Programs Close Due to Government Cuts,” was just released with a press conference scheduled at the Holy Apostles soup kitchen in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan on Tuesday, November 22nd.

• Download the 2011 Hunger Survey Report here (PDF).
• Download the full Citywide Press Release here (PDF).
• Download Joel Berg's November 21st testimony before the NYC General Welfare Committee's Hearing on Hunger here (PDF).
• Download the Staten Island Press Release (Word Doc)
• Download Queens Press Release (Word Doc)
• Download the Brooklyn Press Release (Word Doc)
• Download the Bronx Press Release (Word Doc)

New analysis of recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, conducted by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, found that nearly 500,000 city children, or one in four, live in families that cannot afford an adequate supply of food – what the government calls “food insecure.” The Coalition’s calculations also showed that one in six New York City residents, 1.47 million New Yorkers, live in food insecurity, struggling against hunger.

A separate survey of New York City soup kitchens and food pantries, also included in the Coalition’s report, found that even as demand at city food pantries and soup kitchens grew by 12 percent this year –on top of a seven percent increase in 2010 and a 21 increase in 2009. In 2011, nearly fifty of these strapped emergency feeding programs closed their doors due, in part, to government cut-backs and decreases in private donations.

It also found that 79 percent of New York City’s soup kitchens and food pantries suffered from cuts in government food and funding in 2011. One of the reasons that this number is so high is that the federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which funds hundreds of city pantries and kitchens, was cut by 40 percent as part of the budget deal that President Barack Obama struck with the Congressional leadership to keep the federal government running in 2011. In New York City, those cuts resulted in a reduction in funding for emergency feeding programs from $5.1 million to $3.5 million. To make matters worse, the Coalition’s survey showed that 55 percent of the city’s pantries and kitchens obtained fewer private donations in 2011 than in 2010.

Largely as a result of these cuts, many agencies were forced to close down entirely and the ones able to stay open often had to cut back on their services. The Coalition’s survey found that at least 47 feeding programs citywide have shut down entirely over the past few years. While leadership transitions and management challenges certainly contributed to some agencies’ closures, many cited cuts in federal government funding as the most important reason they had to close their doors.

“Child and adult hunger levels are soaring, while our front line nonprofit feeding agencies are being starved out of business by government cuts,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the Coalition. “How is it that our leaders in Washington find Wall Street firms ‘too big to fail,’ but lose little sleep allowing American children to go without food and allowing soup kitchens and food pantries to close?”

As many food programs in New York City were forced to close or to cut back, increases to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (or “SNAP,” formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) provided critical nutrition support for hungry residents. As of September 2011, 1.8 million New Yorkers received SNAP benefits. The program will provide an estimated $3.4 billion worth of food to low-income city families in 2011 alone, a $1.5 billion jump over 2008. It is important to emphasize that the average SNAP benefit in New York City in August 2011 was $285 per month per household, which dwarfs what even the most generous food pantry or soup kitchen could distribute in a month to a family.

Unfortunately, SNAP funding levels may also be cut in the next year, despite the fact that this program has provided critical nutrition assistance to millions of low-income Americans in New York City and across the country.

“While millions of New Yorkers have been at the edge of an economic cliff, with many being pushed off into hunger, the only reason more haven’t fallen was the temporary growth the SNAP program,” declared Berg. “Unfortunately, to pay for other priorities, President Obama and Congress cut SNAP funding twice last year by phasing-out the stimulus-based increases earlier than planned. Now Congress is – unconscionably – considering a plan to take billions of dollars more out of the program, with an annual cut of $150 million in New York State alone. We are grateful that Senator Kristen Gillibrand is taking a leading role in opposing this later cut, and we hope other elected officials will do so as well.”

In response to these findings, the Coalition called for the federal, state, and city governments to: implement significant new programs to create living wage jobs in low-income communities; bolster safety net programs such as SNAP, WIC, and school meals; and ensure sufficient government funding for charitable food distribution organizations.