>> Following in the footsteps of legendary singer Harry Chapin, Long Island Cares seeking to feed New Yorkers every year.

And the initiative reclaiming the power of agriculture for women and communities of color.

"MetroFocus" starts right now.

♪ >> This is "MetroFocus."

"MetroFocus" is made possible by the Peter G. Peterson Fund.

Bernard and Denise Schwartz.

Barbara hope Zuckerberg.

Dr. Robert C. and Tina foundation.

The JPB foundation.

Rafael: Good evening and welcome to MetroFocus.

I'm Rafael Pi Roman.

We continue our coverage of the hungry New York State with our coverage on Long Island.

There are over 200,000 people suffering from food insecurity and almost 70,000 of them are children.

Long Island Cares, the food bank originally founded by Harry Chapin, is working hard to change that by providing millions of meals and work programs to Long Islanders in need.

Joining us now to talk about those efforts is the president and CEO of Long Island Cares, Paule Pachter.

Welcome to the program.

Paule: Thank you.

Thank you so much for having me on.

Rafael: In New York City, food insecurity exploded during the pandemic.

And although the situation improved, the numbers of people in the city with food insecurity are still way above how they were pre-pandemic.

Is that the situation in Long Island?

Paule: Yes, it is.

During the first two years of COVID, Long Island Cares provided 25 temporary pop-up distribution food sites in Nassau and Suffolk County.

We saw an additional 320,000 people come for emergency food assistance.

These are people that never visited a food pantry in the past.

As COVID was beginning to expand, there were 230,000 people on Long Island in need.

That quickly jumped to close to 480,000.

Rafael: What are the numbers now?

Paule: We are back to about 240,000 people with most of it being driven by inflation and the high cost of goods.

Rafael: Let's talk about inflation.

For those of us who by our own food, it is staggering.

The simplest milk and eggs is just out of this world.

That's got to be affecting you in some really profound ways.

Paule: It is affecting us in a few ways.

First of all, it has resulted in what we are at as a 48% to 50% increase in the number of people visiting the emergency food network.

That equates to about 42,000 new people.

The other impact it is having all Long Island Cares is that like most food banks in the country, we purchased the majority of the food that we distribute to people in need.

While food drives and corporate donations are critical, it is not the main source of food that comes into a food bank.

It is the purchasing of food.

And we've been seeing anywhere between 30% and 40% increases in our prices, to give you a clear example.

Four years ago, we were paying $.79 a pound for food and now it is $1.29 per pound.

Rafael: Even as this is happening, governor Hogle's budget proposal calls for a cut for funding for food banks across the state.

What is the rationale for that?

Secondly, what will that mean for you and for other food providers?

Paule: It is an excellent question.

It is something that has been on our mind since the governor proposed her 2023 executive budget.

The $22 million she is seeking to reduce in funding is part of the hunger prevention and nutrition assistance program overseen by the New York State Department of Health.

That provides funding for the 10 food banks throughout the state to purchase food, to provide some support in terms of infrastructure for our member agencies.

It was always our understanding in 2022 that when the additional funding was provided, that it was going to stabilize the base funding for the program.

Most of our state legislators were under the impression the $22 million was added to the base to support the food banks moving forward.

Unfortunately, I don't know where the communication got messed up, but now, it looks as if the proposed budget reduces the $22 million.

And at a time where we are seeing such a dramatic increase in the number of people and the cost of goods for us doing business, this is just the wrong time to even consider reducing that kind of funding.

Rafael: It is a proposed budget.

It has not been passed or signed.

What are you and your fellow food providers doing to make sure it does not happen?

Maybe the funds are actually increased.

Paule: What we are doing right now is working very closely with our state legislative delegation on Long Island in a bipartisan manner.

We've already conducted two group meetings with legislators or their to discuss the funding package to share with them the data we are seeing in terms of the increase in need.

Explaining to our legislators what the cost of doing business is as a food bank.

We're till seeing delays in the supply chain.

Certainly, the increase in fuel costs are passed on to us because it costs a great deal to pump diesel fuel into your trucks.

So, we are advocating almost on a daily basis with the governor's staff, with the legislature -- we are very fortunate in New York to have a state association and they are very active right now in advocating for the continuation of the $22 million.

Rafael: Are you optimistic you will be able to change this?

Rafael: -- Paule: I am because one of the things I am very confident and comfortable about is the passion our state delegation has over this issue of food insecurity.

They are getting the phone calls everyday from their constituents.

As you know, most recently, the additional SNAP benefit on a federal level, the food stamp program, sunsetted.

There's hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people that receive that benefit.

Now on top of losing the funding for the program, these individuals are seeing a reduction of $95 a month in order to buy food, so this could really be a perfect storm.

Rafael: This is where you come in.

You step in to provide food for the people with food and securities, whether they have government assistance or not.

Give us a sense of what you do and where you do it at your various locations.

Paule: Long Island Cares and the Harry Chapin food bank supports 318 local organizations.

These are your emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, day care programs.

Monday through Friday, we deliver annually about 12 million pounds of food to support these organizations.

That equates to about 10.5 million meals.

In addition to providing the food, we are also providing our own programs, mobile outreach delivery of food to the homeless, seniors, veterans.

On the weekends, we have a children's food truck that goes out to high need communities and delivers a grab and go breakfast to children in need.

We are working with a lot of organizations in terms of identifying where high needs are and where we need to invest most of our resources.

Rafael: Where are your greatest needs in Long Island?

Paule: RafOur greatest needs rit now are in very diverse communities.

We are talking about the village of Freeport.

Huntington Station, Bethpage, and soon to be open in Valley Stream with our satellite programs where we operate our own food pantries which are open five days a week.

We are seeing a need coming from all different corners of the island, with the most significant increase right now V.A.

with our seniors and also -- being with our seniors and newly arrived immigrants.

Rafael: You kind of touched on this.

Not only do you have your locations, you also have a program called mobile outreach resource enterprise program where you actually go to people.

Talk a little bit about that quickly.

Paule: The mobile outreach resource environment is a mobile pantry on wheels where we are able to dispatch the vehicle to different communities to work alongside our member agencies, to provide even more food for people in need.

So, we find that vehicle going out to different community events, where people are coming together, like on evening programs, veteran support.

Not everyone on Long Island is able to get to the community pantry, especially people who have mobility problems.

We have these mobile units that go out and deliver the food where people are located.

Rafael: New organization was founded by Harry Chapin.

There is a photograph behind you.

I know members of the Chapin family.

Very close to his brother Jim who passed away young too.

I learned from this profound passion of feeding the hungry.

To what degree does that passion still influence?

Paule: hHarry's passion is visible through all aspects.

When Harry found it Long Island Cares, his focus was to help people lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty and become more self-sufficient.

And we have stuck to that goal that he had by creating workforce development programs, job training, career counseling, and a lot of the mobile outreach and social advocacy work we do.

For 43 years, we have stayed close to Harry's initial dream.

Rafael: We have just about one minute left.

I would like you to tell our audience who would like to participate, help with their time or resources, what should they do?

Paule: For people who would like to contribute to Long Island Cares or volunteer their time, it is a very easy process.

You can visit our website at licares.org and register.

You can visit any of our six satellite locations throughout Long Island to do the same thing.

Or you can basically walk in our front door at our corporate office or call us.

Rafael: If they want to contribute money, what do they do?

Paule: They can go on our website and make a donation of their choice.

Rafael: Thank you very much for joining us today and thank you so much for the wonderful work you are doing on Long Island.

Heroic work.

It is a pleasure to talk to you.

Paule: Thank you so much.

♪ >> Farming in America has long been labeled as one of the purist, honest forms of labor.

Seeds are planted and a harvest is collected.

It's work that is often considered noble and manly.

Thanks to more of a century, it is also work that is closely associated with white men.

If you peel back the myths of American farming, you will find a much more complicated and nuanced narrative.

One that the founders of rising group farm are hoping to not only celebrate, but sharing a more honest fashion.

As part of our chasing the dream initiative examining poverty and opportunity in America, I am joined by Karen Washington, one of the cofounders of the farm.

Welcome to MetroFocus.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Let's start with the farm itself.

I know a lot of people I hearing about this for the first time.

How did it come into existence?

What is its purpose?

>> It is for women.

Two of us are women of color, two of us are white women.

We are rooted in food justice.

We got our start by doing community garden work in New York City.

Becoming good friends, we said we want a farm together to scale up but also to make sure that everyone has a right to fresh local produce.

We took this journey.

To be honest with you, it was a two year journey going up and down the Hudson Valley in New York and finally stumbling on Chester, New York where we are now.

We have three acres of land.

It is literally black dirt where we grow the best vegetables, but also, there's a little -- Jenna: I would wonder, what is significant about the food justice movement you are involved in?

Because we have done a lot of stories where we talk about the fact that our communities, particularly in the Bronx and various neighborhoods and some of the other outer boroughs that are food deserts.

People cannot get access to fresh, healthy vegetables.

Karen: I want to tell the audience don't use the word food desert.

If you look at our communities, it is an outside term to denote the fact that there is a limited access to food.

We do have food.

We have unhealthy food.

The junk food, the fast food.

What we are trying to do is really to, first of all, peel away our responsibility and history around farming.

If you look locally, most of the farmers throughout the world are women.

That is number one.

Number two, if you look at the history of food in our country, it was done on the backs of enslaved and indigenous people.

Growing up in America, I was always told farming was slave labor until I started to peel back the history and found the truth of why we were brought here.

We were brought here because of our knowledge of agriculture.

The foundation of the food in this country.

Once you tell young people about that, our place in agriculture, the whole narrative shifts.

Now you are embodied with power.

Power to go back to the land, power to grow food.

Power to feed your own family.

That is what we are trying to do.

Jenna: Why is it so important to not only first of all tell that narrative -- first of all, thank you for clarifying that you are right, there are no deserts in New York.

Seriously though, to not only make sure that people are clear on what the history of farming is, but also this is also women's work.

As you said, most farms are run by women.

Karen: It is women's work and it is a powerful thing.

The problem is, again, most of the power we talk about with farming is with white men, but globally, women are doing the work.

What we lack is capital, access to technology, and access to land.

That is starting to change now because people of color are starting to go back to the land because they know land within their family his legacy,.

Knowing the fact you can grow your own food makes you powerful.

Again, that is a narrative that young people are catching on and want to go back to farm.

Jenna: You were saying that the farm almost outgrew an urban farm in the city.

I'm wondering if that fits into a larger movement, especially now with the COVID crisis, we have seen even more people interested in knowing their food supply source, being able to grow their own food in a neighborhood plot or backyard if they are able to.

Karen: It has been overwhelming.

The amount of people watch -- reaching out to us and other urban growers about coming out to the land, how do we start community gardens?

Because they understand with this pandemic, it is the healthy food that will make us better.

It is medicine.

People now want to know where their food comes from, who is growing it, if it was sprayed with insecticides.

When we talk about justice, we want to make sure that people understand from the person that puts the seed in the ground to the plate on your table, that the workers have been treated humanely and paid a fair wage created Jenna: You are talking about -- fair wage.

Jenna: You are talking about layer after layer, the food we are eating and the supply chains, some of the mass industrial farms this country also has.

I'm wondering a little bit about the relationship.

It's not that there is not food in a lot of these communities.

It is just bad food, processed food.

Does the farm also work with people's relationship to food?

Because, for example, a lot of people might get a box every week.

There is usually something in there you have no idea what it is or how to cook, etc.

I would assume the further away you are from a relationship to fresh produce, the more likely you will find more vegetables to feel foreign.

Karen: It has been a journey.

People from the city have been following us when we left New York City up to Chester, New York.

We have maintained our roots in the city because all of us are teachers of farm school.

Farm school is an urban ag school that teaches people how to grow food, teaches people the relationship they should have to asking questions about where their food comes from.

What is it that they can use within their vicinity?

We tell people if you don't have a community garden, you can start growing on a windowsill, backyard, front yard, somebody else's yard.

This pandemic has showed people understand the relationship between food and health.

You mentioned the fact we talked about a food desert.

I like to tell people we don't call it a food desert.

I call it a food apartheid.

I want people to start thinking about the intersection of food along race, along demographics, and along Economics.

We need to have those hard conversations to make people feel uncomfortable to be comfortable.

We have those conversations.

People come to our farm not only to help grow our food and to see the process of growing food, but they have listened to our story because our story is the American story.

Our story is the American dream.

Our story is giving back to our ancestors, who for so long have been nameless and faceless.

We are trying to put a name and face for those that came before us.

We stand on the shoulders of kings and queens, and we want to make your people understand that.

Jenna: It sounds like it is not just a teaching farm or perhaps is a teaching farm in a larger sense where you are not just teaching about farming and sharing that knowledge, but also the history of farming.

From your perspective, how do you think the narrative got so driven in a very singular direction about who is a farmer in America?

Karen: It boils down to power dynamics.

That is all it does, it boils down to power dynamics of a group of people having power over others.

What we are trying to do is peel back that power narrative.

So, let's bring the truth into light.

We have over 7.5 billion people.

We have a handful of organizations, companies that control our food system.

How is that possible?

How is it that we don't take a stand when it comes to food justice, call out the injustices we have seen along the food chain?

Now, people are starting to question the food system.

They look within their communities and see how bad the food is, yet they go into other communities, more affluent communities and see the difference in those communities when it comes to food.

We're talking about food justice and talking about equity.

If we are talking about food sovereignty and the right for all people to have, then healthy food and water are the two things that are human rights for everybody.

We want to make sure that we sound that alarm.

People go out and really stand out for that.

Speak up, speak out because food and water are human rights for all.

Jenna: Absolutely.

In addition to all of the work you do, if someone were to want to get involved or would want to figure out there is a plot of land in my neighborhood and I would love to turn it into a community garden but I have no idea where to start, is it a good source for that and how do work with people?

Karen: It is a good source because we never let go of our connections in New York City.

In New York City, there's a huge community garden movement.

There is an office called Greenthumb.

We tell people three things.

If you find a plot of land, find out who owns it.

Say the city owns it and they have no plans for development and you've got at least 10 people that want to grow food, chances are you can have that lot is a community garden.

If it is privately owned, ask the owner if you can use and grow there.

There are so many institutions that also have vacant lots.

In churches, synagogues, libraries, museums.

Institutions have vacant land that would be very interested in helping anyone grow food, especially at this point in time.

Jenna: We are coming up on the end of our time together but I would be remiss if I did not ask if you can explain a little bit about what you are saying about the black dirt and how that affects the quality of the produce to are able to produce.

Karen: My goodness.

It is high in organic matter.

As a result, we grow the best vegetables and herbs, but also the best weeds.

I have a little thing with weeds.

At one time, used to think that weeds were bad.

But a lot of weeds are.

edible Jenna: I agree.

I recently discovered dandelion greens.

Karen: There are so many things.

We were just picking up -- high in omega fat.

It is really good.

I want people to come visit.

We have community days the last Saturday of the month.

Because of COVID, we have curtailed the amount of people we allow, so 10 people max.

But, follow us on our website, on Facebook.

One thing we say about our farm, we open our farm to everyone.

It is a healing farm.

It goes beyond growing food, it is growing community.

We welcome all that want to grow food.

Food justice and social adhesion -- cohesion.

Jenna: Karen Washington, thank you so much for sharing not only the work you do, but also the passion at work behind the community gardens that we have seen pop up all over the city.

♪ >> Thank you for tuning in.

You can take our award-winning program with you wherever you go with the podcast.

Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcast so you never miss an episode or ask your smart speaker to play the podcast.

It is also available at MetroFocus.org and the NPR 1 app.

♪ >> MetroFocus is made possible by Sue and Edgar.

The Dagestino foundation.

Bernard and Denise Schwartz.

Barbara Hope Zuckerberg.

And Dr. Robert C. and Tina foundation.

Estate of Roland Carlin.

The JPB foundation.

♪ ♪