Coinciding with the floundering economy, record numbers of food pantries and soup kitchens of the Bronx struggled to keep up with the increased demand for emergency food services in 2008. Emergency food agencies in the Bronx reported the highest numbers in both increased demand and turning people away.
According to a recently released survey conducted by the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, 90 percent of all responding Bronx food providers testified to an increased demand for food, while over 70 percent reported limiting portion size, hours of operation, and turning people away. Only agencies in Queens had a tougher time dealing with insufficient amounts of food in the face of a growing demand.
“The bad news is that we have more agencies than ever running out of food,” said Joel Berg, the Coalition’s executive director, in a statement. “The hunger situation which was truly awful in 2007 has now reached crisis proportions.”
Families with children, senior citizens and immigrants showed the highest increase in need, the survey concluded.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.