Sunset Park schools see growing need for food support

Demand for food support continues to increase among school food pantries serving children and their families in Sunset Park.

“It’s getting worse,” said Theresa Monforte-Caraballo, executive director and founder of Grandma’s Love, a nonprofit that provides meals to those in need. “We used to serve only 40 families, at most, at [Public Schools] 503/506. Now it’s 120. It’s a lot of families, and there are people waiting.”

Grandma’s Love is a Bay Ridge-based nonprofit providing meals to families in South Brooklyn, including at various school food pantries in Sunset Park, such as PS 939, which serves 27 families, and PS 503/506, which serves 120 families.

In New York City, roughly one in four children are food insecure, and the continuing rise in food prices, fear of accessing services due to immigration enforcement and cuts to SNAP benefits will continue to increase food insecurity among families.

A lens on food insecurity in schools

PS 503/506 is part of New York City’s Community Schools program, in which schools serve as neighborhood hubs to support children holistically. Active since 2014, 419 schools partner with nonprofits to develop and manage programs that address neighborhood needs, based on family input.

Susan Villa, LMSW, from the Center for Family Life and community school director at PS 503/506, said that when setting up the program, “the need for a food pantry was a very pressing one” at both schools.

PS 94’s in-house food pantry provides customized, culturally appropriate meals to its clients and has seen an increase in demand.

The school is also a Community School, managed by the Chinese-American Planning Council, a New York City-based social services organization with offices in Sunset Park.

In 2022, the food pantry provided meals every two weeks to 40 high-need families and quarterly to 100 families in the low-need category. Last year, due to higher demand and an unchanged budget, it served 210 high-need families, who received food once per month, and 50 families in the low-need category.

Rebecca Giordano, CPC’s family development director for the Community School at PS 94, has witnessed the increase.

“It’s interesting,” said Giordano, “because our school itself has actually gotten smaller during the time we’ve been there, as more schools have opened. But the need for food just seems to be constantly increasing. So it’s been really difficult.”

It could get worse for immigrant communities

Food prices in the NY-NJ area continue to rise, putting pressure on families’ ability to buy basic groceries. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that food prices rose 3.3% over the past year, while fruits and vegetables rose 10.9%.

“We’re seeing increased rates of food insecurity that continue to disproportionately impact certain communities more than others,” said Alexina Cather, MPH, director of policy and special projects at Wellness in the Schools. “And of course, that continues to intensify with the growing SNAP cuts and immigration raids.”

Wellness in the Schools aims to provide meals and educate schoolchildren about healthy eating habits.

Fear of immigration enforcement continues to limit immigrant communities’ access to social services and food.

“You can actually see distribution go down a little bit because people don’t want to leave their homes,” said David Calderon, Community Schools program coordinator at PS 503/506.

In addition, stricter requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, a federal program that provides food support to low-income individuals, threaten access for some families.

These changes, part of Public Law 119-21, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, were approved on July 4, 2025, enacting revisions to federal tax codes and stricter social spending measures, among other provisions.

Adults subject to SNAP work requirements generally must work at least 20 hours per week, earn at least $217.50 per week, volunteer or participate in approved Human Resources Administration work or training activities. Federal changes have also restricted eligibility for many legally present noncitizens.

Cather said, “What we’re seeing is that many immigrant families, or families without traditional work that can document hours, are going to lose that benefit. Those families then start to rely more heavily on food pantries or, for children, school meals.”

The impact of the new law has begun to be seen across the United States.

According to April 2026 data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of SNAP participants has decreased by 10% nationwide between January 2025 and 2026. In New York City, the Department of Social Services reported consecutive monthly decreases in SNAP enrollment from October 2025 through February 2026, reaching 1,701,491 in February, a drop of over 5% from the previous year and the lowest level since September 2023. Enrollment ticked up slightly in March to 1,703,098.

In February 2026, Mayor Mamdani’s administration released a $127 billion preliminary budget for fiscal year 2027. However, according to a published analysis by Cather, “the financial plan reflects a continuation of existing commitments rather than a significant expansion of programs.”

This could mean that many organizations will have to operate with the same budget, despite increasing demand.

Giordano explains that at the PS 94 food pantry, to make the programs accessible, participants are automatically enrolled from one semester into the summer and then the fall.

But if the trend from the previous year continues this summer, “it would be twice as many families as we had last summer,” Giordano said. “And that’s literally just unsustainable.”