Issue Position: Food Insecurity

Issue Position

Before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, Tompkins and Cortland counties were already facing a long-standing food insecurity crisis. "Food Insecurity" is defined as a lack of reliable access to enough affordable, nutritious food to live a healthy life. As Feeding America reports, hunger can lead to reduced cognitive development and educational attainment in children. There is abundant research linking poverty and food insecurity to higher rates of chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease, reduced earnings, and premature mortality.

According to FeedingAmerica.org, approximately 18% of people in Tompkins and Cortland counties were food insecure in 2017, the latest year for which data is available. In addition to affecting thousands of children in our community, many seniors on fixed incomes are "chronically food insecure" and end up returning to food pantries for years, according to the 2018 media collaboration Feeding Tompkins.

Community organizations like the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, The Friendship Donation Network (Tompkins), Loaves & Fishes, the Salvation Army, and local food pantries all work to provide support to families, but the demand outpaces their ability to supply food. For example, the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, which works hard to provide over one million meals to Tompkins County residents annually, is still only able to meet less than half of the need. According to FeedingAmerica.org, there is an $11 million annual shortfall in order to provide for everyone in Tompkins and Cortland Counties. ($1.2B for the whole state).

If families across the region were facing this imbalance when the overall economy was stable and unemployment was relatively low, imagine how COVID-19 has magnified this crisis. Existing systems cannot handle the increased load without an influx of funds, organizational support, and a bottom-up rethink of what is possible.

An emergency food taskforce emerges in Tompkins County to address COVID-19

In mid-March I connected with a group of farmers and community organizers -- Rafael Aponte, Dr. Rachel Bezner Kerr, and Kirby Edmonds, in a grassroots effort to mitigate the growing local food crisis. The existence of enough food was not the problem. The first problem was getting the food to the growing number of people who needed it without increasing anyone's risk of contracting COVID-19. The second problem was supporting local farmers who had suddenly lost markets as restaurants, schools, and cafes closed their doors.

An initial meeting took place with 65 people representing a wide range of stakeholders in the food system including: local governments, K-12 and higher education systems, community agencies working with various vulnerable populations, human services agencies, shelters, restaurants, transportation agencies, healthcare institutions, and Mutual Aid Tompkins. As a result, the Tompkins County Covid-19 Food Task Force was created and working groups emerged to address three critical areas of need: production, distribution, and health. These groups have been meeting at least weekly and the coordinated effort allows participants to identify arising needs, and new vulnerable groups, and to provide solutions through shared resources in real time.

An emergency food hub is established

The taskforce identified several key issues in the distribution process that COVID-19 has amplified. Multiple taskforce members were delivering food from various sites around the county without access to refrigeration units, consistent warehouse food packers, or coordinated drivers. Ample food was coming into the county, but we needed a centralized location to properly store and organize the food in order to reduce food waste and allow the food to be distributed effectively. And of course, all of these had to be solved with adequate social distancing and other health protocols in place.

The taskforce established an emergency food hub in the former Green Star Space thanks to the generosity of the Green Star Cooperative, and later by its current owners, the City Harbor group.

The coordinated work of the Task Force and the Emergency Food Hub has highlighted the power of combining our efforts and resources. In the first week, we accomplished:

Cleaning a new warehouse space on Monday with teams of carefully distanced volunteers, under guidance from the Health Department;

Packing and delivering 600 boxes of food from the GreenStar's The Space by volunteers with the Food Bank of the Southern Tier;

Receiving 10,000 masks on Friday; Re-packaging on Saturday with Spanish inserts and hand sanitizer for delivery to farms and farmworkers in the region through the NYS Department of Agriculture, Cornell Cooperative Extension, and the Cornell Farmworker Program;

Coordinating $2000 worth of locally-farmed fruits and vegetables from Headwater Food Hub to be distributed to families in need through the Ithaca City School District on Thursday.

Last week, Engaged Cornell in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension funded a full-time temporary coordinator position to take over the extensive effort previously led by our core group of volunteers. Holly Payne, who has been involved in the local food system for years, particularly with the Childhood Nutrition Collaborative and Esty Street Community Gardens, has stepped up to fill this important role.

Long-term solutions inspired by COVID-19 state actions

Food insecurity is a deep-rooted and long standing issue in our community. Investments in nutrition are a smart way to reduce long term poverty and dependency on social services, lessening the burden on the healthcare system and programs like medicaid, and ultimately saving taxpayers' dollars.

On April 27th, Governor Cuomo announced $25 million in funding to support the Nourish New York initiative. Through this program, the state purchases produce from upstate farms and distributes it to communities and households in greatest need through the state network of food banks.

If made permanent, Nourish NY could serve as the core for a statewide fight to eradicate hunger. To make the initiative cost effective, we must capitalize on community programs and social service programs that already exist, and incentivize coordination. The Taskforce and food hub created in Tompkins County, as well as similar models operating in other counties like Schenectady, demonstrate that a comprehensive coordinated effort can address food insecurity in our community effectively, efficiently, and equitably.

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