Food insecurity jumps by 36% in NYC

Food insecurity has jumped by 36% in New York City. Reports say it is higher among children.

An estimated 1 in 4 children don’t have enough to eat. This is a 46% increase over pre-pandemic numbers according to Feeding America, one of the leading anti-hunger nonprofits.

Community fridges popped up on streets all across New York City during the pandemic. Neighbors stocked them with donations for fellow neighbors to use as they needed.

School lunch is free for all New York City students. With more than 70% of public school children coming from low-income families, the district is able to provide universal meals.

This safety net was one of the reasons then-Mayor Bill de Blasio had been reluctant to close classrooms in spring 2020, until the city devised a plan to serve grab-and-go meals.

Schools handed out 130 million meals while buildings were closed during the pandemic.

About 1.5 million New Yorkers are hungry. Among them are almost 500,000 children, according to City Harvest.

Fresh food can be too expensive for many families with children. It can also be difficult to find in neighborhoods with few grocery stores, or at food pantries, where shelf-stable, processed foods are often the norm.

Eating healthy was a challenge for many New Yorkers even before the pandemic.

The Lower East Side and much of the Bronx are in dire need of more grocery stores, according to a city analysis.

The ratio of bodegas to grocery stores on the Lower East Side is 18 to 1. In the area of the Bronx, it’s about 17 to 1.