Bensonhurst Food Pantry Reaches Out to Neighboring Communities

Home Brooklyn Life Bensonhurst Food Pantry Reaches Out to Neighboring Communities

By Alysia Santo

This mother came to Reaching Out for a few extra items, picking out a box of cereal, dog food, meat, vegetables and juice. (Alysia Santo/The Brooklyn Ink)
This mother came to Reaching Out for a few extra items, picking out a box of cereal, dog food, meat, vegetables and juice. (Alysia Santo/The Brooklyn Ink)

Thomas Neve’s storefront is almost always full of people, yet being busy is not enough to keep him open. Neve is the founder of Reaching Out Community Services in Bensonhurst, the only client choice food pantry or “supermarket style” operation in southwest Brooklyn, and one of only four client choice pantries in New York City.

Neve says that he has been on a shoestring budget since he started the pantry 18 years ago, but now he is coming close to running out of money. “We have about two months of funding left,” Neve says, “We could have all the food in the world but we’ll still close because we can’t come up with the rent.”

Food pantries around the country are reporting a large increase in the number of people who come to their sites. The Hunger in America study from 2010, which is done by Feed America, found that 74 percent of food pantries reported an increase in service demand since 2006. Stability of these operations has trended down with 67 percent of pantries reporting that the continuation of their programs is threatened. Half of these pantries cited funding as the main issue in continuing their operations.

Thomas Neve leads a walk to raise money for his Bensonhurst food pantry. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Neve)
Thomas Neve leads a walk to raise money for his Bensonhurst food pantry. (Photo courtesy of Thomas Neve)

Neve recently held the second annual Walk for Hunger around the perimeter of Dyker Beach Park in Dyker Heights. Neve says that he turns to neighboring leaders from Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights for help because he serves 3400 families from 16 different communities, and about 1200 families are from this part of Southwest Brooklyn.  Councilmember Gentile and Community Board 10 President Joanne Seminara attended, along with Borough president Marty Markowitz. About 300 people participated in the walk, raising $12,000.

Neve sys he needs a minimum of $150,000 a year to run the pantry. The walk provided him with about another month of funding. This has led Reaching Out to start a waiting list for the first time. It has also started turning regular clients away. “I have to cut off the single people first because I just can’t do it to people with children,” says Neve.

In a report from the New York City Coalition Against Hunger from 2009, the number of families with children who requested food in Brooklyn increased by almost 60 percent over one year. In the past three years, says Neve, the majority has become middle aged and under. Most of the clients from Bay Ridge who seek help from Reaching Out fall into this group. Over 80 percent of the 3000 people who are registered from the Bay Ridge area are 65 and younger.

While there are four food pantries located in Bay Ridge, they are all pantry bag style. This is where a person either waits in line or makes an appointment to come and pick up a bundle of cans and dry food assembled from a posted list. It is a helping hand to those who need food, yet the loss of choice and control over what one consumes, especially those with particular dietary needs, can add to the already stressful situation of needing emergency food.

After a brief screening process at Reaching Out, clients can come monthly or bimonthly to push a cart down the aisles of what looks like a mini grocery store, picking out canned goods, frozen meat, cheese, fresh fruit and vegetables, even dog food. “You can choose what you want, its not just a bag passed off to you. I appreciate that opportunity,” says Audley Maxwell, 36, a resident of Bay Ridge. Maxwell came in to Reaching Out to pick up a few items to make it through to his next paycheck from his job at a phone survey company in Long Island City.

Neve moved his pantry to a larger location in early 2008 when he realized that the number of people needing help was growing. His monthly costs tripled to $8,500, but by increasing the number served, he thought he could rally more funds. This year grants from the city and the state fell through. “I’m learning to digest the fact that I’m only responsible for the effort, not the outcome,” says Neve, who is currently writing an emergency funding request to the Brooklyn Community Foundation.

Reaching Out cut Fridays from the schedule to save money this summer, and Mondays could go after Christmas, though Neve says he would rather borrow money than cut his service down to three days a week. He compares his efforts to fishing, saying that he hooks some small stuff but he’s always waiting for that big catch. “When you keep bringing up seaweed it gets harder to sit out there with your bait in the water everyday.”

Read more about community efforts in Brooklyn:

Multicultural groups protest budget cuts

Brownsville Task Force Combats Infant Mortality

Jewish Patrol Still Controversial in Crown Heights

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