Addressing Food Insecurity in our communities through the AAPI Equity Budget

NEW YORK (March 22, 2022) -- As year three of the pandemic gets into full swing, the need to address the increasing levels of food insecurity amongst New York’s Asian American and Pacific Islander communities becomes more and more apparent. That’s why the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) and our Members and Partners are urging New York State’s lawmakers to renew their commitment to combating food insecurity in our communities by passing the $64.5 Million NY State AAPI Equity Budget.

“While often not thought of as an AAPI issue, food insecurity remains a hidden yet persistent problem for families across the state in our community. A new report created by the NYU Center for the Study of Asian American Health (CSAAH) in partnership with CACF and the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) found that accessing food was the number one concern of the Asian Americans surveyed,” said CACF’s co-Executive Directors Anita Gundanna and Vanessa Leung. “Our community members are going to extreme measures in order to feed their families, including changing their food habits, rationing or skipping meals and relying on food pantries and food banks and community based organizations to put food on their tables.”

But while New York’s community-based organizations have stepped in to help residents feed their families during these unprecedented times, CBOs that serve the AAPI community remain startlingly underfunded.

Based in East Harlem, Asian Americans for Equality is a community-based organization that has been thinking outside the box in order to get their clients access to foods they are familiar with. Through a one year private grant, AAFE launched a pilot program in November 2021, establishing an Asian produce pantry from Union Settlement’s Senior Center at the NYCHA Wagner Houses in East Harlem. In this neighborhood, where the Asian population has doubled in the past decade, all 110 slots were reserved 20 minutes after the pantry was announced. The program not only alleviates a food desert for Asian seniors and families and relieves the need for seniors to travel by train to Chinatown for groceries, but promotes cross-racial understanding through community engagement. Through our initiative, Asian residents are participating in community-wide programs, not only the pantry but other events, as well, including a holiday toy drive and an East Harlem Lunar New Year celebration. In partnership with the nonprofit, Choy Commons, AAFE is starting a farm to table Asian produce program, including day trips for seniors to visit Asian farms and harvest produce and an Asian produce cooperative, staffed by Asian seniors, in East Harlem. 

“We firmly believe one of the best ways to make our communities and city safer is through building bridges between diverse groups and striving for unity across cultures,” said Jennifer Sun, AAFE’s Co-Executive Director. “Passage of the Equity Budget would not only provide continued funding for AAFE’s East Harlem pantry and culturally appropriate food initiatives, but it would also create a strong foundation for meaningful engagement and collaboration between East Harlem’s rapidly expanding Asian community and other groups in one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods.”  

The need for food and social services is particularly stark amongst our AAPI elders, our Members and Partners report. At UA3, staff work in neighborhoods across the city assisting older Asian Americans with their food needs. “With food being the common denominator, we serve over 7,000 members across New York City. We also learn first-hand about their individual struggles and hardships — among our elderly members including a 97-year-old who also collects bottles for income and an 87-year-old who is currently living with and being the sole caretaker of her 107-year-old mother,” said Chi Loek, UA3’s Executive Director.  “This is a driving force that motivates our members and volunteers, and we are very proud that we are able to help and contribute to making these lives a little bit easier during this very difficult time.  By being able to bring in many more members into our service where we can use the opportunity to address and improve other aspects of their life such as mental health, employment training, physical and social wellbeing, and food education by referring them to resources.”

Yet addressing food security requires a nuanced, culturally responsive approach that factors in issues such as familiarity of ingredients and adherence to religious and cultural standards, especially when it comes to serving AAPI clients. “Food insecurity is a critical problem for our communities. We started our culturally palatable food pantry in 2016, after one of our clients, a South Asian undocumented immigrant and cancer patient, shared that she could not find the food that she ate at any of the local food pantries. She said, 'All I want is some dal (lentils), rice, atta (whole wheat flour) and some spices and I can cook my own food,’” said Sudha Acharya, Executive Director, South Asian Council for Social Services. “The pandemic has only aggravated the need for food, here at our pantry each week we serve over 5,600 individuals. Providing food that is culturally appropriate is expensive as we have to purchase them from local suppliers. The passage of the $64.5 Million NY State AAPI Equity Budget Proposal (FY 22-23) will ensure that we are able to keep pace with the growing number of clients that we serve.”

Oftentimes, tackling food insecurity also means assisting community members with other pivotal needs such as housing, employment and accessing health care. When the Caribbean Equality Project, which serves LGBTQ+ Caribbean and West Indian New Yorkers, began its COVID-19 Relief and Resilience Food Justice program, they knew they had to address their community in a way that residents — who are largely documented and undocumented low-income Afro and Indo-Caribbeans, South Asians, and Latinx immigrants and  LGBTQ+ people — could trust and rely on. 

 “The Caribbean Equality Project’s COVID-19 Relief and Resilience Food Justice program are more than just food pantries; they serve as community resource fairs for consistently underserved and underfunded Caribbean-centric neighborhoods in New York City. In addition to culturally congruent staple grocery items, the organization has been providing personal protective equipment, household sanitation essentials, safe-sex kits, oral hygiene kits, in addition to direct services such as referrals for government services, mental health care, and linkage to health insurance, rapid COVID-19 testing, on-site vaccinations, voter registration, and much more,” said the Carribbean Equality Project’s Executive Director Mohamed Q. Amin. “In 2021, the Caribbean Equality Project continued running its food justice program to ensure marginalized communities received the life-saving resources they needed to navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The organization continued to center community care to keep impacted communities safe and protected through resource mobilization and love.”