Steering Much-Needed Donations To Rockland Food, Meal Programs

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — To help the more than 40 food pantries and meal programs serving more hungry Rockland residents than ever before, two local agencies have teamed up to get money for food to all the places helping local people who need it.

The need has far outpaced population growth. Based upon numbers provided by the Rockland County Food Bank Member Statistics, in June of 2019 there were 37,826 persons served per month, which doubled in December of 2022 to 79,432. According to the U.S. Census, the county's population was 326,352 in 2019 and 338,329 in 2022, a growth rate of 3.7 percent.

"The number of people that have been going to food pantries in Rockland doubled during the pandemic," Anita Dreichler of Rockland Community Against Hunger told Patch. "Now there are even more."

But people just don’t think of the NYC suburbs as places where people are hungry, she said. "I used to be one of those people who got up in the morning and got on the train and went into the city to work and had no idea what was going on around me ... You think, 'oh it’s homeless people.' Not so. It’s your neighbors."

And the need is Rockland-wide, she said. "People think, 'oh it’s just Spring Valley, or 'oh it’s just undocumented people.' That’s not true. It’s all over the county. The Sloatsburg food pantry did almost 27,000 meals in December. It's crazy."

A combination of circumstances is driving the increased need.

"Our neighbors are just not able to afford what they used to because of rising costs all over the place," Stephen Papas of United Way of Rockland County told Patch. "When it costs double, triple for milk or eggs —which everyone’s been focusing on — you have less buying power. Not to mention, there was a moratorium on evictions that has ended. Now the landlords are trying to recoup their losses. You’ve got a housing squeeze, you’ve got a food squeeze. There are quite a few people who just can't afford their groceries."

The situation has been made worse because the federal pandemic emergency food benefits program ended at the beginning of March — a loss of $6 million that had been coming directly to Rocklanders to buy food, Papas said. "That's not a small chunk of change."

Plus, the New York state budget proposal calls for a 30 percent cut in the hunger prevention and nutrition program, which is grant money that goes directly to food banks, Dreichler said. "If that is cut30 percent there's that much less money."

As a result, "All the pantries are bracing for additional people," she said.

Meanwhile, many of Rockland's food programs are run on a shoestring. Every pantry has their own eligibility criteria, she said. Things are so tight that there are times when people who aren’t registered have to be turned away.

Plus, while large pantries may have staff and financial backup, small ones like St. Stephen's Food Cupboard are run by volunteers, Papas said. "They may be great at getting food to people but don’t have time to fundraise. We’re using our resources so that every pantry can receive donations."

RCAH and the United Way have created a webpage to do just that, leveraging the former's intimate knowledge of the Rockland food program scene with the latter's expertise and resources.

RCAH is a collaborative of non-profits and government agencies working together to provide food to over 40 food pantries & meal programs in Rockland County, NY. Its steering committee includes Meals on Wheels, TOUCH, the MLK Multi-Purpose Center, BRIDGES, Catholic Charities, Sloatsburg Food Pantry, WestCop Haverstraw & Spring Valley, the Rockland Conservation and Service Corps and the county's Health Department.

It started small in 2018, when TOUCH got a large walk-in freezer, and began to be able to collect food that would otherwise go to waste at supermarkets and big retailers. Now they have a whole system of drivers with trucks who make pickups at 20 stores every day of the week. In 2022, RCAH collected 1.2 million pounds of food that would otherwise been thrown away. The items they collect go directly to the food programs.

"A lot of these pantries don't have storage space," Dreichler said. "They need the food about the time they're looking to distribute it."

Donations to Rockland food programs through this new collaboration with United Way will go directly to the pantries to buy food.

How to donate

• Online, go here then click on the "Donate" button.
• By mail, make checks payable to “United Way of Rockland”, 135 Main Street, Nyack, NY 10960 and put RCAH in the memo.
• If you wish to create a webpage to gather funds from your friends and family to help feed your Rockland neighbors in need, click here.

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Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.