Three towns in Warren County – Lake George, Bolton and Horicon – are among those with hamlets where median home sale prices range from $600,000 to $900,000 – among the highest in upstate New York.
But drive a few miles inland and the picture is a very different one. The safety net is fraying. According to Adirondack Foundation, the Lake Placid-based, Adirondack Park-wide community trust that spots and seeks to repair those rips in the safety net, “Most of the counties within the Adirondack Park (are considered by the US Department of Agriculture) to be ‘low-access’ (i.e. having limited access to food stores) and/or ‘low-income.’”
In Warren County, 31.4% of all school children qualify for free school lunches.
And “food insecurity,” an Adirondack Foundation report issued August 22 states, “not only affects access to nutritious meals but also strains the social safety net, contributing to various health complications, including malnutrition, chronic diseases and mental health disorders.”
For those in the business of providing safety net services, the limited access to food faced by many families living within the ambit of wealthy resort communities (as well as the lack of housing, child care and transportation) “comes as no surprise,” says Bolton resident Jessica Rubin, Vice President and Chief Impact Officer for Hudson Headwaters Health Network, whose John Rugge Center partnered with Adirondack Foundation this past summer to analyze and assess the Park’s existing social support systems.
But since COVID, “the need continues to grow; the gap between a family’s need for food and its obtainability has widened,” said Kayla Carlozzi, the Executive Director of North Country Ministry, which operates food pantries in Warrensburg and Brant Lake.
According to Carlozzi, North Country Ministry’s food banks experienced a 55% increase in demand just between 2022 and 2023.
“We were feeding 130 people at each food bank every week,” said Carlozzi.
This year, the food pantries have seen a rise in demand at the end of each month, when families have exhausted their monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, said Carlozzi.
(In response to COVID, Congress temporarily increased SNAP benefits by 15%, which eased pressure on food banks, Carlozzi said. But that 15% increase expired in September, 2021. COVID-era stipends, which put cash in the pockets of every family and individual and which also lessened demand, were also terminated as the pandemic receded.)
Tom Jenne, who manages the food pantry of the Caldwell-Presbyterian Church in Lake George, says he sees year-round residents using the pantry more frequently.
“The need continues to grow. The gap in affordability has widened.”
The North Country Ministry’s Warrensburg food pantry served a record number of people during the last week of August, 2024: 164.
Clearly, the need for food pantries such as those operated by the Caldwell-Presbyterian Church and North Country Ministry is there.
Nearly 16% of the population living in the area served by North Country Ministry now lives in poverty, the organization states.
Families living in poverty in the more rural parts of the Adirondack Park, such as those served by North Country Ministry, “have fewer healthy food options, like fruits, vegetables, meat, whole grains, and dairy,” reports Adirondack Foundation.
Moreover, according to Josh Stephani, Program Manager for the Adirondack Food System Network, food pantries are “seeing more fully-employed people, whose assets fall within the range of what is traditionally understood as middle class, utilizing their services.”
And, as North Country Ministry’s Carlozzi says, “the need continues to grow. The gap in affordability has widened.”
Why the Increasing Need?
According to Carlozzi, the causes of “the widening gap” between the income available to a family to buy food and its affordability lie in phenomena easily observed.
“Multiple things have led to the increased use of our food pantries,” said Carlozzi. Among them: rising prices.
And while rising food prices “have a huge role to play,” there are other factors as well, Carlozzi said.
“There is a connection between rising housing costs and food insecurity,” said Carlozzi. “People spend their income on housing, knowing access to food pantries can offset the costs of food.”
Lack of affordable childcare is another factor, said Carlozzi.
“If one person has to stay at home to take care of children, there will be less money to buy food,” she said.
Tom Jenne from the Caldwell-Presbyterian Church said the rising costs of gas at the pump and car insurance are among the other demands competing for a family’s food dollar.
According to Adirondack Foundation, “seasonal weather conditions further compound these challenges, rendering distant grocery stores inaccessible for extended periods.”
Food Insecurity Did Not End with COVID
Obviously, the federal and state governments are aware that food insecurity did not end with COVID.
In October, 2021, the federal government permanently raised SNAP benefits by 40 cents more per person, reportedly in response to a Congress-directed USDA study of the price of a healthy diet.
And this summer, Albany began distributing $120 per child to low-income families to help defray the costs of feeding children during summer vacations, when free school meals are not available.
Nevertheless, the amount allotted to a family for groceries “won’t get you very far,” said Carlozzi, who noted that the most affordable foods tend to be “processed to high heaven,” and not terribly healthy.
According to the Adirondack Food System’s Josh Stephani, a disparity can be found not only between a family’s food budget and the actual costs of groceries, but between the food panties’ growing needs and the funds available to purchase food in bulk.
“At best, the increases to those programs’ budgets are minimal,” said Stephani.
Warren County’s representative in the New York State Assembly, Matt Simpson, said he finds it “frustrating” that food pantries and charities must step into a breach created by inadequate public funding for basic necessities such as food.
“The need is ever increasing, and not-for-profit organizations are left to make up the difference when public programs are not meeting the need. So our non-profits are growing and increasing their reach,” said Simpson. “I’m so thankful that we have organizations like these, but in the larger scheme of things, peoples’ basic needs should not be the responsibility of that sector. Whatever we in government are doing, clearly, it’s not enough.”
North Country Ministry’s Mobil Mart
North Country Ministry is expanding its reach literally, taking groceries to those who need them but who are unable to travel to its food pantries.
In October, 2023, it launched its Mobile Mart, a heavy-duty Dodge van that travels the back roads of Warren County from Lake Luzerne to Minerva and Adirondack, delivering groceries to families in need.
“We’ll go wherever the need in our service area is to be found,” said Carlozzi.
The Mobile Mart currently serves 35 families, whose requirements are familiar to the volunteers who deliver the groceries.
“The volunteers know what the families want. They’ll bag the groceries at the pantry and then bring it right to people’s front doors,” said Carlozzi.
Families who have requested assistance from the Mobile Mart are being added to a wait list, Carlozzi said.
Reweaving the Social Safety Net
While no single initiative will “reweave” the Adirondack region’s social safety net, Adirondack Foundation and Hudson Headwaters’ John Rugge Center have spent the past year talking with practitioners about how best to strengthen it.
“Folks were saying, ‘we need partners. We can’t do our work alone,’” said Lori Bellingham, Adirondack Foundation’s Vice President of Community Impact. “They want to formalize and strengthen the existing partnerships and to increase the capacity to do the work they need to do, and to do it together.”
A final report based on those stakeholder meetings has been released under the title “2024 Safety Network Regional Convenings” and is now available from Adirondack Foundation.
“We’re going to do more work. We will convene more sessions which, we hope, will help provide the tools for these partnerships. And we’re developing a grant program that will bring together and support the folks who are working on these partnerships. So more is to come. We’re stepping forward,” said Bellingham.
