Soaring fuel prices are adding a new strain to the fight against hunger across Northeastern New York, according to the Regional Food Bank, which says rising transportation costs are straining food assistance at a time when demand remains high.
The organization, which distributes food across 23 counties, reports that fuel costs for its delivery fleet are up more than 54% compared with this time last year.
Susan Lintner, chief advocacy and engagement officer for the Regional Food Bank, said that increase is hitting a system already stretched by inflation, supply chain pressures, and changes to federal nutrition assistance programs.
“We spend 41% of the land mass of New York State,” Lintner said, describing the food bank’s service area, which stretches “from the Canadian border, down to the New Jersey border and out to up to Delaware County.” She added, “one in eight are food insecure. It’s a number that’s been growing.”
Each month, the organization serves more than 355,000 people through a network of roughly 1,000 partner agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools, and youth organizations.
But Lintner said even small increases in fuel costs have significant consequences for a distribution system that covers such a wide geographic area.
“Because of this expansive landmass and the demand for our services, we spent $10,000 more this month than we did this at this point last year,” she said. “And because the food bank can use $1 to provide three meals worth of food, that’s 30,000 meals that have gone into the tanks of our trucks as opposed to going out to people who need it.”
At the same time, she said, families are facing similar pressures at the household level.
“I know I went to the pump, and it cost me over $100 to fill my SUV this past week,” Lintner said. “And because of that, families are making choices. They’re making choices—do I feed my kid? Do I fill my tank and get to my job? Particularly in rural areas, this has hit us really hard.”
The food bank says those pressures are contributing to increased demand for emergency food assistance, especially in rural communities where transportation costs can be a major barrier to accessing groceries, work, and school.
Lintner said the organization is also seeing the effects of broader economic changes, including adjustments to federal nutrition programs. Those shifts come as food banks nationwide continue to navigate the end of pandemic-era support programs and fluctuations in federal commodity supplies. Littner noted that the organization saw reductions in USDA-provided food while demand remained elevated.
“We sustained like many organizations nationwide huge cuts in federal commodities,” she said. “Last year alone, we received 7 million tons less of our federal commodities through the USDA program that we have in the past.”
Despite those challenges, Lintner said the food bank has managed to increase the total amount of food it distributes, largely through retail partnerships with grocery stores and community donors that help redirect surplus food before it goes to waste.
Still, she said, the system is operating under sustained pressure.
“We are actually… we’ve actually increased the amount of food that we have been able to source and distribute over this point last year,” she said. “But as I said before, we’re seeing this spike in demand… and there’s only so much of the charitable food system can do at this point.”
Looking ahead to the summer months, Lintner pointed to expanded efforts to address child hunger, including a pilot program that delivers meals directly to children in rural communities who cannot access traditional summer feeding sites.
“What we’re doing is we’re piloting this program where we are working with schools to identify at-risk children and making sure that those children in rural communities get boxes of breakfast and lunch shipped to their homes every week,” she said. “It’s seven days of breakfast and lunch to help meet that need.”
Despite the challenges, Lintner said she finds hope in the strength of the food bank’s volunteer network.
“About 70% of our food pantries that we work with are completely volunteer run,” she said. “And while that’s a challenge, it’s also a gift. These are folks that just give every day to make sure our neighbors have access to the food they need to thrive.”
Image Credit: Regional Food Bank