On Friday the Hudson/Catskill Housing Coalition will host its monthly food drives to distribute free groceries and household items in Albany, Hudson, and Catskill. We have held monthly food drives for almost a year. On the day of the food drives, our volunteers pick up the food, unload trucks, arrange groceries across tables, and get everything ready before people start arriving. Sometimes people are already waiting with their carts and shopping bags while we’re still setting up. We never know how many people will show up or how long the food will last.
At our back-to-school food drive in Albany last month, the demand became clear immediately. We ran out of food much sooner than we expected. Running out meant having to tell our neighbors who showed up for help that there was no more food left to give them. Those are difficult conversations to have, especially when you know that someone came expecting to leave with groceries for their household. For October’s food drives, we are dedicating additional resources to Albany because we know the need has not gone away.
We see parents picking up groceries for their households, older neighbors who need help carrying bags, and people stopping by after work. They are trying to cover groceries, rent, utilities, transportation, medication, and all the other expenses. Most of us know what it's like to notice that the same bag of groceries costs more than it did not too long ago. For someone whose income hasn't increased, those higher prices leave fewer ways to cut back on expenses.
When the food runs out at a food drive, we focus on the immediate problem: next time, we need more food. But the bigger question is: Why are so many people relying on emergency food assistance in the first place?
Changes at the federal level are reshaping programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). At a time when many households are already struggling with the cost of basic necessities, new eligibility requirements and changes in how SNAP is funded and distributed are placing much more financial responsibility on states. In response, New York has dedicated additional resources to emergency food assistance. But the effects of the SNAP changes will go beyond the state level. Eventually, the pressure will reach counties, food banks, churches, nonprofits, mutual aid organizations, volunteers, and donors. Those decisions may be made far away from Albany, Hudson, or Catskill, but their consequences eventually arrive here, in the lives of our neighbors and in the lines at our food distributions.
This is where decisions become very real. A change in federal food assistance policy might be discussed in terms of budgets, eligibility rules, and government spending. At the community level, it can look like a family visiting a food pantry for the first time. It can mean someone buying fewer groceries to make sure the rent gets paid, or a senior stretching what is in the refrigerator until the next check arrives. For a community organization like ours, it can mean realizing that the amount of food that served everyone last month is no longer enough. The responsibility moves downward, but the resources available locally do not always grow with the need.
Neighbors helping neighbors is one of the things I appreciate most about this work. I have watched volunteers carry groceries for older residents, restock tables as quickly as they become empty, and stay until the last box is packed away. Those moments remind me how willing people are to take care of one another when they see a neighbor in need. That kind of mutual support makes our communities stronger. But community support should complement a strong public safety net, not be expected to replace one. A food distribution can help families get by for a week, but it cannot lower their rent, increase their wages, or guarantee that there will be enough money for groceries next month.
That is why I believe we need to pay attention to what the lines at food drives are telling us. When more people need emergency food, our response cannot simply be to find more food, recruit more volunteers, and set up more tables. We also have to ask what has changed in people's lives. What happens when the grocery bill goes up again, but the paycheck doesn't? What does a family put back on the shelf when there isn't enough money for everything? What happens to a community when public assistance becomes increasingly hard to get while the cost of everyday life continues to rise? These questions matter because when a family is struggling to afford food, chances are food isn't the only bill they're worried about.
On Friday, we will once again set up our tables in Albany, Hudson, and Catskill and distribute as much food as we can. We will keep showing up because meeting an immediate need matters, and because taking care of one another is part of what makes a community a community. But we should not measure our success by how good we become at managing longer food lines. We should listen to what those lines are telling us, examine the choices that are causing more people to need help, and work toward communities where fewer of our neighbors have to stand in those lines in the first place.
Tasha Mitchell is the director of Communications & Community Engagement for the Hudson Catskill Housing Coalition, a Black-led nonprofit advancing housing justice, education equity, criminal justice reform, and community power across the Hudson Valley and Capital Region.
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