Overburdened emergency food providers fear second “hunger cliff”

“This is the second hunger cliff.”

That is the term Food Bank for New York City President and CEO Margarette Purvis used during her organization’s annual conference on hunger and poverty – this year’s conference title is “Raising Our Voice” – to sound the alarm about a pending reduction in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits that could put significant additional strain on a network of emergency food providers that advocates say is already terribly overburdened.

The cuts are set to begin making an impact across the nation on April 1, 2016, as a result of a provision passed in a 1996 welfare reform act. Able-bodied adults without dependents (referred to as “ABAWDs”) who have more than three jobless months within any three-year period, will lose SNAP benefits on this date unless they are employed and working (in-kind or voluntary work is acceptable) 80 hours during the month, or can document participation in a qualifying work or training program.

Food Bank for New York City, an umbrella organization serving about 1,000 soup kitchens and food pantries across the city, documented the first “hunger cliff” as occurring right after an across-the board reduction in SNAP benefits took effect in November 2013, spurring an “immediate and widespread increase in visitor traffic” among emergency food providers. The cuts resulted in the estimated loss of 76 million meals for New York City residents, Food Bank reported.

During the annual conference, Purvis called this second hunger cliff “worse” because so many of the organization’s members have been unaware of it. Much of New York state and city has been under a waiver that delayed the loss of benefits while unemployment rates were high. That waiver expired December 31, 2015.

“We’re here to sound the alarm, and we feel like it’s our job for having such a robust network, for having the data, to really try to get our group together, especially during this Raise Your Voice. I’m like, ‘If you’re going to raise your voice, raise your voice about the thing that matters’ and ABAWD matters more than anything else we’re facing,” Purvis said.

Groans and gasps of surprise were prevalent as Purvis talked about the provision and its effects during her keynote lunch address. Though in New York State, 20 counties, eight cities, four boroughs and four Manhattan community districts remain exempt, 53,000 New Yorkers could lose their benefits. Purvis feels the entire city will be dramatically affected.

Food banks and soup kitchens typically serve individuals well beyond their immediate geographic area, as people canvas the city for providers offering what they need on the days they need it. When conference attendees were asked if their organizations served individuals from outside their borough, approximately three-quarters of the audience’s hands went up.

In a document answering frequently asked questions about the ABAWD time limit, the USDA advises individuals who have lost SNAP benefits and lack the money to buy food to “contact your local food bank. They can help you find food to get through the tough times.”

“Though people are being sent to us, no one asked us what our resources looked like before that great invitation was sent,” Purvis said.

To address that, Food Bank for New York released a research brief about the current level of capacity among member organizations.

Titled “Abundant in Heart, Short on Resources: Need and Opportunity at NYC Food Pantries,” the brief analyzed survey results from 242 active food pantries and soup kitchens in January 2016. It found that as recently as last September, 90 percent of food pantries and soup kitchens were experiencing increased visitor traffic, and approximately half reported having run out of food that month.

But as the need has increased, funding has remained stagnant, Purvis said.

She spoke of an investment of more than $1 million into her citywide network some 10 years ago, but said she had not seen capacity support at that level since. More than half of food pantries are completely volunteer-run, the survey showed. The median annual operating budget for a food pantry is between $10,000 and $24,999, and the median number of people a member food pantry serves monthly is 1,110.

“Just because they (emergency food service providers) are the ones to stand up for their neighbors doesn’t mean they should be the ones left holding the bag,” Purvis said. “People who don’t believe in miracles are always expecting a miracle when it comes to pantries and soup kitchens!”

Maria Vives, who volunteers with Give Them to Eat, spoke at the press conference about how she primarily does seasonal and temporary work in order to continue volunteering full-time with the food pantry, but is concerned that she may soon need to find other employment.

“I can’t find a way to break away from serving that community, which is in excessive need,” Vives said.

“If I leave, who is going to take over all of the work that I do?”

The conference’s keynote speaker, Tanya Fields, the founder and executive director of the BLK ProjeK, a food justice and health organization in the Bronx, said that as a mother of six who earns about $40,000 per year, she often finds herself on food pantry lines.

“I know what it feels like to wait until all of my children have eaten and then eat whatever’s left on the plate,” Fields said. She spoke of purposely turning down potentially higher paying jobs in order to continue doing the work she does supporting urban farming efforts and creating women-led economic development opportunities.

Fields also drew a connection between food insecurity and the “prison pipeline.” She stated lack of access to food reduces individuals to their “primal state” and shared that on those days when she did not have enough money to feed her children, she would purchase a bag of chips at a local store and “put anything else I could in my bookbag.”

Swami Durga Das, executive director of The River Fund, said emergency food assistance providers are the “frontline” in the war against poverty. “The first issue is always food insecurity.”

Advocates were concerned about the relatively small amount of attention New York’s hunger problem is receiving.

“There are a lot of severe issues, but this is one of them,” Das said.

“We serve more people who are trying not to be homeless, we're serving people who have a job, who have children in the New York City public schools who are working more than one job and the pantry has now become the way that (they) can pay the rent. That’s a very real thing,” Purvis told New York Nonprofit Media.

“The last place you want to end up is a shelter,” Das said.

So, on tables next to the vendors advertising shelf stable milk, insulated foam food containers and other resources for food banks were postcards to be sent to state officials. They called for increased funding for the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program – the primary state government program supporting food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in New York State.

Throughout the day, the message was clear: To sustain additional New Yorkers who will experience food insecurity after SNAP cuts, emergency food providers will need support as well.

“I mean the hunger cliff,” Das said. “I think before we were holding on with fingernails. I think we just let go.”