As SNAP cuts loom for 42 million people amid the ongoing government shutdown, Long Island City-based non-profit the Fortune Society has launched a new food distribution event in a bid to provide weekly food assistance to local residents struggling with food insecurity.
The Fortune Society, a nonprofit providing wraparound services to previously incarcerated individuals, serves around 400 people a day from several locations across the city, including its 65,000 square-foot Long Island City headquarters at 29-76 Northern Blvd., providing a range of services from mental health treatment and family services to food and nutrition programs.
The launch of a new weekly food pantry at its LIC headquarters came one day after Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in New York in anticipation of a federal cutoff in SNAP benefits for 1.8 million people across the state and around 42 million people nationwide on Saturday, Nov. 1.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) claimed earlier in October that there would be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for the 42 million Americans currently enrolled in the program “if the current lapse in appropriations continues,” citing the ongoing shutdown that has been in effect since midnight on Oct. 1.
But Fortune Society President and CEO Stanley Richards said Friday’s launch would have taken place regardless of SNAP cutoff, stating that the new weekly food pantry is a response to a much broader food insecurity crisis.
He said the nonprofit serves roughly 18,000 people every year across the city, predominately serving individuals from underserved Black and brown communities who have consistently struggled with food insecurity and access to healthy food amid a rising cost-of-living in the city. Richards said individuals impacted by the criminal justice system have struggled to put food on the table even when benefits are available, often impacting their ability to re-enter society.
“If you define the best of times where snap is available, before this legislation takes effect, people who are impacted by the criminal legal system struggle to put food on the table, to afford the food, to have access to healthy food,” Richards said Friday.
He said the nonprofit has built out a nutrition and healthy food program to teach people how to cook using healthy ingredients in addition to distributing food on a weekly basis.
“We understand that even if you have those benefits, it’s hard to maintain for the entire month,” he said.
He insisted that the new Long Island City initiative is a response to a much broader issue of how previously incarcerated individuals struggled to access everyday resources for themselves and their family.
But the impending SNAP cutoff will prove devastating for underserved communities across the country, Richards said, further highlighting the need for initiatives like the Fortune Society’s new weekly pantry.
“I’m worried about communities throughout this country that are going to have to struggle and figure out how to survive when, on day one, they go to get their benefits and their benefits are not there.”
Several individuals who signed up for the new program at Friday’s launch echoed a similar sentiment.
Saphyra Morrison, a justice-impacted individual who signed up for the new program on Friday, expressed concerns about the impact of the SNAP cuts, stating that she has seen a noted rise in prices since returning home in August.
“It’s a scary time,” Morrison said. “In addition to the price increases, the impact of the shutdown of EBT is going to be drastic.”
Makyra Mitchell, who also signed up for the new initiative on Friday, said it is her first time signing up to a Fortune Society program and added that the program appears to be a lifeline as she looks to feed her 7-month-old daughter.
Mitchell, a SNAP recipient, had stopped working to care for her newborn baby along with two older children, but said the impending SNAP shutdown has forced her to seek employment once again.
“My kids need food,” Mitchell said. “We have to start doing something. We can’t just sit here and wait for them to open it (SNAP) up. What if they decide not to?”
She said the SNAP cutoff, coupled with the rising costs of groceries in the neighborhood, had left her concerned about how she would care for her family.
“It’s not right,” she said. “It just makes it really, really hard for people.”
But the new program has offered Mitchell hope, providing around 50 bags of groceries to individuals every week, including fresh fruit, vegetables and pasta among other foods.
Richards similarly said the program offers a gesture of hope to individuals and families struggling with food insecurity at a time of crisis.
“Every day, I see people walk in here with hope about something better could happen for me the next day. And so we lean into that hope,” Richards said. “We respond to the needs of the people, and when people see an organization respond, that does increase hope – that they are not forgotten, that they are not alone, that they matter, they are seen and they are valued.”
He said the organization strives to see the best in every person who walks through its doors until they themselves can see it also.
“Then they can begin to live,” he added. “And sometimes it starts with the smallest gestures.”
Council Member Tiffany Cabán and representatives from the offices of several local elected officials, including state Sen. Mike Gianaris, Council Member Julie Won and Council Member Lynn Schulman, also attended Friday’s launch.
Gianaris issued a statement praising Fortune Society for helping to provide underserved communities with access to nutritious food amid the looming shutdown.
“With the federal government derelict in its duty to serve the American people, I am proud to have partners like Fortune Society who are helping to feed the people of New York,” Gianaris said in a statement.
