Inflation, On The Heels Of A Pandemic, Means Food Pantries Are Still Facing Challenges

In 2020, Holly Wheaton was paying 77 cents for a dozen eggs when she was ordering for the Springs Food Pantry. Just two years later, she finds herself spending $2.75 per dozen.

Vicki Littman at East Hampton Food Pantry felt she could always rely on chicken to be an affordable source of protein for the clients the pantry serves. She’s currently absorbing the sticker shock of $5.99 per pound for poultry.

Molly Bishop, who runs the food pantry for Heart of the Hamptons in Southampton Village, has seen similar price increases as well, and on some days items the pantry has ordered simply don’t show up.

At the food pantry in St. Rosalie’s Church in Hampton Bays, Catherine Andrejack is seeing a surge in demand from people living on fixed incomes.

At the Old Whalers Church in Sag Harbor, food pantry director Evelyn Ramunno’s heart breaks when she hears clients, often in tears, describing how their landlord has doubled the rent and they can’t find anywhere else affordable to live.

Food pantries on the East End faced an unprecedented challenge in early 2020, when the pandemic descended on the country and millions of people lost their jobs, leading to a huge and rapid surge in demand. More than two years later, the clients the food pantries were serving during that time are still playing catchup on bills and other expenses they incurred during long periods of time out of work.

In the midst of that recovery, sky-high inflation that is not expected to abate anytime soon has exacerbated the issue, and food pantry directors like Littman, Wheaton, Andrejack and Bishop once again find themselves having to call on all their resources to keep food pantry shelves stocked, and to keep clients fed with healthy and good quality grocery items, from protein to fresh produce.

For food pantries, inflation is a double-edged sword, making it not only harder to pay for and source the groceries they provide to their clients, but pushing more people over the brink financially — leading them to call on food pantries more than ever.

It’s all happening in the summer, when demand is typically lower, because many people are able to take on extra seasonal work. The likelihood that inflation will remain high into the fall and winter months, when many families concurrently have less money coming in and expenses rise, is something on the minds of directors as well. The enormous increase in the cost of home heating oil alone could drive some families to seek assistance from the food pantry for the first time.

Several area food pantry directors spoke about the particulars of the challenges they’re currently facing, how they’re meeting those challenges, what they’re concerned about in the months ahead, and what gives them hope that they’ll remain able to meet the needs of the community.

In the early days of the pandemic, food pantries were a more vital community resource than ever, as massive layoffs created an unprecedented level of food insecurity.

By now, most people who lost work or jobs two years ago are back to work, but many are still facing the uphill climb of recovery, trying to catch up on debts that were delayed but not forgiven.

For those who were living paycheck to paycheck before COVID, getting back on their feet was already a struggle, and the advent of inflation has been an additional kick in the teeth.

On top of that, the leniencies that have been extended to families over the past two-plus years are starting to expire: Earlier this month, PSEG-LI recently began sending letters to tens of thousands of Long Island customers warning them that their power could be turned off for nonpayment in as soon as a week as the utility company returns to prepandemic protocols, according to a Newsday article, which stated that around 120,000 residential electric customers owe more than $160 million in past-due bills as of the end of May.

“We live in the most expensive place in the country, and now there’s inflation and food prices are increasing astronomically,” Littman said. “Food pantries are facing that, too. We’re paying such high prices for food, so we’re even struggling. Now we have to raise even more money to keep up with demand, and there’s even food shortages.”

The idea that food pantries primarily serve people who are unemployed or unable to work is a myth, especially when it comes to East End food pantries, and it’s a myth that still needs to be dispelled.

“Our clients work so incredibly hard,” Littman said. “These are the working poor. They’re working two or even three jobs. It’s so hard, and they’re still struggling on a good day. Now, with COVID and inflation, you’re seeing the middle class to low income really being affected.

“It’s just so, so sad to see so many people struggling just to try to live here — you have to work so much just to live,” she added. “You’re not even able to enjoy the beautiful life that many people have here in the summer.”

Rammuno experiences with the families that come to the Sag Harbor Food Pantry.

“This is a trying time for many of our clients,” she said. “Some have had their rents increased and have to move, but where? There is nowhere to move to. It's just so sad.”

Wheaton said there is often a disconnect when it comes to understanding why there are still such long lines for food pick-up at the pantry. “The community has to be made aware that just because COVID is waning, it doesn’t mean people are coming to food pantries unnecessarily,” she said. “What I get a lot from people who have driven by, they’ll say, ‘There’s so many jobs. I see the papers loaded with jobs. Why aren’t they working?’ They are — but they just can’t make it.”

Wheaton offered an example: One of the volunteers at the Springs Food Pantry, a mother of two small children who is also a pantry recipient, came in the other day and told her that her landlord was raising her rent by $2,300, and giving her only until October 1 before the new price goes into effect.

Heart of the Hamptons gave out 194,000 meals worth of groceries in 2020, and did not see that number drop off much in 2021, still providing 177,000 meals worth of groceries in that year, despite the fact that many people had returned to work or found new jobs at that time.

“We were already feeling that it would probably take our clients years to bounce back, even before inflation hit,” she said. “For people already living paycheck to paycheck, or not even, it was already going to be tough to get back on their feet. But with the rise in cost of everything, it feels like families are falling further and further behind.”

The after-effects of pandemic job losses and high inflation are universal challenges for food pantry recipients, but pantry directors agree that there is one group in a particularly vulnerable position at the moment: People living on a fixed income — elderly or disabled people relying on Social Security or another form of fixed government assistance — are struggling.

While other families may be able to take on extra work to make ends meet, elderly and disabled people don’t have that option.

Littman said it’s something she’s noticed in particular about this current wave of inflation-induced demand on pantries, and Andrejack, in Hampton Bays, agreed. Andrejack said that while the demand at the pantry has been stable over the last few months, thanks to a strong job market during the summer months, she’s noticed an increase in the number of senior citizens requiring assistance, as well as others living on a fixed income.

“They can’t do overtime or get a side gig,” she said. “People with a long-term health issue or mental illness, where their income can’t be expanded in any way — that’s the community where we see the increase.”

Littman also pointed out that many people who may have had a small nest egg or money in a savings account already had to burn through it during the pandemic and have not had time to recoup that money, giving them no safety net of funds to call upon.

Persistent high inflation has been such a problem for food pantries because it affects not only the recipients but the pantries themselves. At the peak of the pandemic, Littman said the East Hampton food pantry was feeding 30,000 families. This winter, she’s projecting that number will reach 40,000, as families will have to contend with astronomical costs for home heating oil once the weather cools.

To meet the need, they’ve set up satellite pantries in the John Marshall Elementary School and East Hampton Middle School, as well as in Amagansett. But inflation will make it harder to make sure all those locations are stocked with food.

It’s a concern all pantries in the area are dealing with.

“Inflation is also passed down to the food pantries in our purchasing, so that is going to be a concern,” Andrejack said, adding that the pantry will continue to apply for grants and work on securing many different avenues of funding, but that the future still remains “unknown” at this point — not only when it comes to securing funding, but in terms of what food shortages might exist and how bad they will be.

“We’ve been spending almost $3,000 a week to try to purchase food,” Bishop said. “And sometimes when the deliveries come, it’s, like, this is all we got for $3,000?”

Bishop said that food banks have been having a hard time purchasing what they would normally have in stock, and that, often, certain commodities don’t show up, not necessarily because of a food shortage but because a nationwide shortage of truck drivers causing shipping delays.

The double whammy of a pandemic and inflation — not to mention the continued affordable housing crisis that has reached acute levels on the East End — can paint a dire picture for food pantry directors.

But none of them is giving up hope. Instead, they’re doubling down on their efforts to raise community awareness of the need, and trying to level up their fundraising.

Littman said she was buoyed by the fact that many people who made a permanent move to the area from New York City have become reliable donors to the food pantry, and she expressed deep gratitude for the volunteers and donors who have been supportive throughout the years.

“We live in a very generous community, and whenever we have come into a crisis, people have always stepped up to help us,” she said. “I’m very fortunate to work with a board of 13 volunteers who work tirelessly to make sure the pantry will remain open,” she added. “We’ve never had to close because we were low on food.”

Both Andrejack and Wheaton pointed out that they receive generous support from other groups in their communities, and it’s not always monetary. A new organic vegetable garden at St. Rosalie’s will help bolster the supply of fresh produce, and the Sisters of St. Joseph’s in Hampton Bays donated more than 1,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to the pantry.

The Springs Food Pantry regularly receives donations of fresh vegetables from Balsam Farms, Amber Waves Farm and Share the Harvest. Last week, Wheaton took in 700 squash from Balsam and 280 heads of lettuce from Amber Waves.

Despite all that support, many pantry directors agree that fundraising has become “a 24/7 job,” as Wheaton termed it. The Springs pantry has never had a blowout summer fundraiser, but will put one on for the first time ever this summer, with a garden party gala at the Lieber Estate in Springs.

Her approach to fundraising and asking for financial contributions has had to change over the years, she said, particularly after seeing a 450 percent surge in demand during the pandemic.

“When I first started, I held back a bit. You’d talk it up, but you didn’t come right out asking,” she said. “Now I come right out and ask — because you need to.”

Wheaton said she’s observed another telling statistic: Last year, the average household size of recipients was 3.4 family members. This year, it’s 4.1, suggesting that more people and multiple families and generations are sharing a home because of the housing crisis. It’s another statistic that drives home the importance of securing funding for the pantry.

Pantry directors expressed gratitude for the support they see throughout their towns and communities.

“As a community, Hampton Bays is really proactive in collaborating,” Andrejack said, pointing out that different churches collaborate, as well as organizations like Kiwanis and Rotary, and that the local school district has been a great partner as well. “I think Hampton Bays is well prepared with the resources in the school and community.”

Having that continued, multi-faceted support will be key in sustaining pantries going forward.

“All area food pantries depend on that community partnership,” Bishop said. “It takes a whole community coming together to make it successful.”