In May 2022, the food pantry at St. Athanasius Church was in peril, facing a shortfall in emergency pandemic funding that threatened to force it to close and terminate its ability to serve upward of 200 local families.
A little over a year later, the food pantry has survived, under new leadership, but faces new challenges reflecting those facing New York City as a whole.
Inflation has driven food prices up 5.2% across the city in the past 12 months according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and volunteers at St. Athanasius find themselves struggling to feed a community that needs more than they have the funding to serve.