Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
'Persistently high' number of NYC kids rely on food pantries as aid cuts loom
By
Karen Yi
Published May 4, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By
Karen Yi
Published May 4, 2026
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
New York City food pantries experienced twice as many visits from families with children last year as they did in 2019, a new report by the nonprofit City Harvest shows.
The food rescue group’s annual report on child hunger underscores a stubborn food crisis that hasn’t slowed since the pandemic's worst days and that advocates worry could worsen amid looming cuts to federal food benefits.
“We are seeing a persistently high need for food assistance, especially among families with children in New York City,” said City Harvest CEO Jilly Stephens. “The line that we see at our own distribution in Sunset Park has to be seen to be believed.”
The report shows visits by families with kids to food pantries in fiscal year 2025 was up 97% from six years earlier. Pantries had an average 1 million visits by families with children every month.
City Harvest said one in four children don’t reliably have enough food. About 42% of families with children reported needing more money to meet their household food needs — a 24% increase from before the pandemic.
“Pre-pandemic food pantries were really serving families that were unemployed and/or receiving benefits, where post-pandemic we're finding that a good portion of the people [who] are coming to our food pantry are working or are in school,” said Edwin Pacheco, executive director of Redemption Red Hook Food Pantry.
The “cost of living in New York City is outrageous,” he said.
Food policy advocates are bracing for even longer lines next month, when New Yorkers who don’t meet new federal work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, could begin to lose their benefits.
Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump approved a tax-and-spending measure last summer that added new work rules for SNAP recipients, who have three months to meet them before getting kicked off their benefits.
The changes mean families with children who are 14 or older will have to work 20 hours a week, volunteer or be in school to hold onto their monthly benefits. About 1.8 million New Yorkers, including 500,000 children, receive SNAP.
Stephens said the federal government shutdown in November and the unprecedented two-week freeze on SNAP benefits was a window into how crucial the program is for families and how much pressure the city’s food system could face without it.
New Yorkers skipped meals, stopped paying their bills and flooded soup kitchens and pantries. Grocery stores reported dips in sales and some emergency food providers ran out of food or had to turn people away.
“The frequency with which we'll see people coming, the distance people will travel to go to a pantry or food distribution or mobile market that maybe is outside of their immediate vicinity, those are the sorts of things you start to see when you see pressure applied to this network of food programs,” Stephens said. “Families will go farther afield.”
Stephens said City Harvest is planning for a potential surge in demand in the coming months across the 400 pantry partners it supplies.
Tagged
economy
food insecurity
hunger
new york city
snap benefits
Karen Yi
Karen Yi covers homelessness and poverty. She joined the WNYC and Gothamist newsroom in 2020. Before that, Karen covered Newark for the Star-Ledger and spent almost a decade working for newspapers in New Jersey and Florida. She grew up in Miami and has a dog named Cashew. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal 917-589-1460.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Dump truck driver hits and kills cyclist on 34th Street in Midtown, NYPD says
It's the latest in a string of hit-and-run deaths in the city in recent months.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Sep 28, 2026 at 4:15 p.m. ET
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
News
New ingredient mandated for Latin American kitchen, restaurant plates in NJ
The Garden State now requires that corn masa dough and flour made and sold in the state be fortified with folic acid.
By
Arya Sundaram
A Brooklyn jail cell filled with smoke. The emergency button failed, a lawyer said.
By
Samantha Max
Crews launch tunnel machines to dig first new Hudson River rail tunnels since 1910
By
Michael Sol Warren
NYC nor’easter dries up after weather service reports minor flooding
By
Ramsey Khalifeh
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .