Monday, May 19, 2025
When Yovica Valentin steps into the Valley Stream Long Island Cares food pantry each month, she’s not just picking up groceries — she’s trying to keep her life from unraveling. The 29-year-old Air Force National Guard member and a neonatal intensive care unit nurse has been on extended medical leave for two years, grappling with undiagnosed health issues and mounting medical bills.
The pantry’s offerings — staples like eggs, meat, and bread — have become a lifeline. But under the Trump administration’s recent cuts to federal food aid, those basics may suddenly be harder to come by.
Truckloads of federally promised poultry, produce, and other food shipments were set to arrive at Long Island Cares this spring.
But by early March, the Department of Agriculture abruptly canceled those deliveries, freezing $500 million in Biden-era aid distributed through the Emergency Food Assistance Program and backed by the Commodity Credit Corporation.
The cut—shaving less than 0.01 percent of the $6.8 trillion federal budget—deals a crushing blow to the regional food giant, wiping out an estimated 250 thousands of pounds of fresh food. Now it is grappling with how to fill the glaring shortfall on short notice at a time when hunger is rising and funding streams are rapidly drying up.
Long Island Cares CEO Paul Patcher warns that the pain of this decision will be felt across Long Island, especially among working families, seniors, and the many households “living paycheck to paycheck.”
“Worst case scenario, there might be less food to go around, because, number one, we’re not getting as much USDA Foods as we did last year,” said Patcher. “And number two, the need is up by 30 percent, and therefore we have to serve more people with less.”
Like many Long Island residents, Valentin has seen her cost of living swell while her income remains relatively flat.
“Everything is just going up, but the money is basically staying the same, so it’s been very hard,” she said. The 29-year old Elmont resident has even debated moving from the state entirely though harbors hopes she can stay in the place she’s always called “home.”
She is also among a growing number of residents turning to the Valley Stream food pantry, which has borne a surge in demand that shows no signs of slowing. In just six months, the number of people relying on its services nearly doubled—from 601 in September 2024 to 1,087 by March 2025. Over that same period, meal distribution skyrocketed from 5,427 to 9,751.
It’s unclear how much of that uptick comes from pantry regulars shifting from the Freeport location to the new Valley Stream food distribution center, but Patcher said that there is no doubt demand in general is up across the board.
Now the nonprofit is urgently considering a range of options to confront the rollback — part of the Trump administration’s broader campaign to shrink government spending and eliminate programs that “no longer effectuate the goals of the agency.”
One immediate step, he said, is to appeal directly to donors — both major corporate sponsors and everyday supporters.
“But there’s a caveat,” noted Patcher. Inflation is still stubbornly high, national figures show consumer confidence is slipping, and a subsequent pullback in spending is also hitting Long Island Cares.
“People are giving less — sometimes 50 percent less. Sometimes 20 percent. It depends,” he said. “Someone who gave us $50 last year might only be able to give $25 now. Families are watching every dollar — what they spend, what they buy, and yes, even how they give to the causes they care about most.”
Dan Egan, chief executive of Feeding New York State — the nonprofit network representing New York’s 10 regional food banks, including Long Island Cares — is deeply skeptical that food banks can close the food gap simply by ramping up donations.
“You can’t replace food at this scale, at this speed, simply by getting more donations. That’s not a feasible choice here,” he said.
Egan argues that the wild unpredictability of Donald Trump’s stop-and-start tariff policies strains food banks’ purchasing power in ways the public might not anticipate. Take aluminum cans, for instance.
Since aluminum is heavily used in canned goods — many of which food banks distribute — the tariffs indirectly make food more expensive and harder to source.
In March, the U.S. levied a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, including tin mill steel used in canned food packaging.
Most tariffs have been put on a 90-day pause since April, but souring trade relations and disruptions with the United States’ largest trading allies, Canada and Mexico, are causing friction across the entire food supply chain.
“We get an enormous amount of produce in the United States from our friends in Canada, from our friends in Mexico,” he said. “That’s slowing down, and those prices are going way up, and we’re hearing that from our food bank colleagues.”
Patcher remains cautiously optimistic that Albany may soften the impact on food banks if Governor Kathy Hochul approves proposed increases to the Nourish New York and Hunger Prevention Nutrition Assistance Program funding from $54 million to $75 million. Yet, negotiations over the governor’s $252 billion budget stalled well past the April 1 deadline.
The acrimonious tension between Hochul and Albany lawmakers in recent days casts doubts about whether any increase is forthcoming.
Then there’s the looming threat that, should federal cuts to critical services like SNAP and WIC come to fruition, New York will face a stark choice: implement cuts of its own or absorb the costs without the option to raise new revenue.
Patcher emphasized the danger of Trump’s push to cut federal funding, warning that such moves could backfire if they also undermine food pantries. While federal cuts to social net programs drive up demand for food banks, these pantries remain increasingly ill-equipped to handle the growing need.
For now, Patcher said, as federal and state leaders remain stuck in “wait-and-see” limbo, there is no clear map forward on how to navigate a problematic situation.
“We’re waiting for guidance, and that’s a big question mark for us,” he said. “Nobody knows what’s next.”
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