1 of 12 people is food insecure, new stats for Long Island show
MELVILLE, Long Island (PIX11) — Of every dozen people, one of them doesn't know where their next meal is coming from, and may go hungry.
That's what the results of a new survey show for people in the Tri-state region, specifically, the organization Feeding America has now released its Map the Meal Gap study.
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Its information, based on statistics supplied by the U.S.D.A., U.S. Census Bureau, and Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that on Long Island specifically, 10 percent more people are food insecure, year over year.
The survey compares numbers in 2022 with those in 2023, the latest year for which there are complete figures. In that period, food insecurity rose from 221,190 Long Islanders experiencing it to 240,470 people having it as an issue. That's approaching a quarter million people, or about 1 in 12 Long Island residents.
Gregory May, the director of government and community affairs at Island Harvest, the food bank that serves both Nassau and Suffolk Counties, said that his food bank sees the effects of those numbers daily.
'In 2019,' he said, 'we distributed about 9 million pounds, 10 million pounds of food.'
'This year,' May continued, 'we're going to be distributing 20 million pounds of food. We're doing about twice what we were doing before the pandemic.'
He said that among the actions that people can take to try and reverse the numbers is to 'reach out to your member of Congress, and tell them no cuts to SNAP.' That is, of course, the acronym for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or what used to be known as food stamps.
There have been efforts in Washington to reduce SNAP benefits during this session of Congress, but no actual action has yet taken effect.
May also said that there are efforts that individuals can take to help tackle the growth in food insecurity. Among them, he said, 'Donate food, volunteer their time. We need more of everything right now, from the folks that are able to help.'
He also said that specific ways to donate food, time, and funds are here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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