A food pantry in Southold keeps people coming to get essential items such as eggs, fresh produce and milk, but nonprofit leaders there are growing worried about keeping up with the rising demand for their services.
The Center for Advocacy, Support and Transformation, the nonprofit that runs the pantry and other initiatives to serve low-income individuals and families, has seen a dip in charitable giving coupled with a loss of COVID-19 government funding. Now, it’s facing more than a $200,000 shortfall.
To help make up the difference, the nonprofit is considering reducing food distribution for families from once a week to twice a month. At the same time, it anticipates serving more than 400,000 meals this year, the most since the start of the organization in 1965. The previous high was before the pandemic began, in 2019, when roughly 40,000 to 45,000 meals were served.
“We’re continuously growing at an alarming rate, and I don’t see it letting up anytime soon,” said Cathy Demeroto, executive director of the nonprofit, which hopes donors will step up to fill the funding gap.
The Southold-based nonprofit is not alone in feeling the squeeze. Others are facing economic hardships, threatening to further strain an already fragile safety net with their possible closure or reduction of services, experts in the nonprofit industry say.
“There are just a lot of nonprofits in a really precarious space right now, which then has a really negative effect on the people who they serve, in that these nonprofits don’t have the resources to help everyone turning to them for help,” said Rick Cohen, chief communication officer and chief operating officer at the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of Nonprofits.
Among the signs of trouble:
Yet, some in the nonprofit community hope there will be a boost in fundraising in the last part of the year.
Marie Smith, director of donor relations and communications at the Long Island Community Foundation, a grantmaking…
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