Long Island Cares food bank seeing more people in need of help as inflation rates rise
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. -- Rising inflation rates are driving up prices for everything, including food.
Local food banks, like Long Island Cares, are doing what they can to help struggling families put food on their tables.
Long Island Cares/The Harry Chapin Food Bank serves those in need in Nassau and Suffolk counties. They support over 340 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters, and their programs address food insecurity and educate people about the causes and consequences of hunger.
The food bank's CEO, Paule Pachter, joined CBS2's Dana Tyler to talk about the need for help.
"In the early days of COVID, for the first year, year and a half, we saw an additional 228,000 people here in Nassau and Suffolk in need of food ... We thought we're looking at the numbers go down, there's no more, you know, the panic that people had during COVID, but now with inflation, the numbers are starting to creep up again, and that's concerning us," Pachter said.
Long Island Cares is holding a distribution event Sunday in Huntington Station as part of the New York state restaurant resiliency program. The food bank is working with 36 Long Island-based restaurants to provide 4,000 prepared meals to families in need.
The event starts at 3 p.m. at St. Hugh of Lincoln Church on East Ninth Street.
For more information, visit licares.org.
You can watch the full interview above.
