Thanksgiving is tomorrow, and while many New Yorkers will be gathering together with family and friends over a huge dinner, over a million New Yorkers will be facing food insecurity, wondering where their next meal will come from.
As the cost of living and inflation rates continue to rise, more and more New Yorkers find themselves struggling to afford food. And it’s not just the unhoused population that is feeling it, low and middle-income families are also experiencing hunger at higher rates.
According to Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2024 report, in 2022 around 15% of New Yorkers experience hunger. The report also found that the Bronx specifically was in the top 10% of counties in the country facing food insecurity, with 290,990 Bronxites (a little over 20% of the population) experiencing hunger.
That same year, Brooklyn saw a rate of around 15% of the population facing hunger, 11.5% in Staten Island, 12.5% in Queens and 14.9% in Manhattan.
Soup Kitchens and Food Pantries
All year long, soup kitchens and food pantries feed New Yorkers in need and Thanksgiving is no exception. The city has an interactive map highlighting kitchens and pantries, including kosher, halal, mobile and HIV customer-specific locations, available at finder.nyc.gov/foodhelp.
The Food Bank for New York City also has an interactive map of hunger resources at foodbanknyc.org/get-help/, and Hunger Free America breaks down resources by neighborhood in English, Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Polish at hungerfreeamerica.org/en-us/neighborhood-guides-to-food–assistance. City Harvest also has a map of local soup kitchen and food pantries as well as their own mobile markets and distribution partners at cityharvest.org/food-map/.
New Yorkers can also call 311 and ask for the nearest food resources.
Several locations will serve Thanksgiving Day meals on Nov. 28, including The Bowery Mission (227 Bowery), which will serve breakfast from 8 to 9 a.m. and Thanksgiving meal service from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Hunger beyond the holiday season
It’s an unfortunate fact that food insecurity exists beyond the holidays. Hunger resources such as New York City’s food banks are free year round, but there are ways to get additional help if you are facing food insecurity.
SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps, are available for those who need assistance purchasing food for themselves and their families. To apply for SNAP, New Yorkers can reach out to the city’s Human Resources Administration at 718-557-1399 or apply online at a069-access.nyc.gov/accesshra. You can also apply in person at one of the city’s HRA Centers; you can find the location nearest to you on nyc.gov.
For a mobile option, Plentiful is an app that allows users to search for resources on their phones. Through the app, users can look up food assistance programs, manage reservations and save a spot in line for pickups. You can download the app on iOS or Android or visit plentifulapp.com.
More hunger resources are available at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA’s) National Hunger Hotline, call 1-866-3-HUNGRY for English, and 1-877-8-HAMBRE for Spanish. The line is open from 7 a.m.–10 p.m. EST.
