Island Harvest, one of Long Island’s largest food banks, could lose up to 4 million pounds of food annually for lower income families, seniors and veterans, if $300 billion in SNAP benefits are cut in the proposed federal budget, organizers said.

Advocacy groups gathered Monday at the food bank’s warehouse in Melville with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to warn of potential cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food to about 150,000 Long Islanders and 1.7 million people in New York City, Schumer said.

Island Harvest provides 20 million pounds of food annually for more than 108,000 people in Suffolk County and more than 41,000 people in Nassau County in the SNAP program, according to the food bank. Food banks, including the Hauppauge-based Long Island Cares Harry Chapin Food Bank, said the demand for food and SNAP assistance has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The proposed budget would cut more than $1 million to Long Island's emergency food programs, which could pay for about 3 million pounds of food, under the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. Island Harvest provides food boxes monthly to 5,500 seniors on Long Island who make less than $1,900 per month, said Island Harvest President Randi Shubin Dresner.

"I’m an optimist, I always think there’s a way around," Shubin Dresner said. "I’m not sure there’s a way around here. There are too many lives at risk. I don’t know of any fraud or overspending in our industry. ... There’s no waste here."

The U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee voted Sunday, along party lines by a vote of 17-16, to advance the budget bill to a vote before the full House later this week. The committee did not include any representatives from Long Island.

Schumer, joined Monday by farmers, veterans, Catholic nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph, who also grow and provide food, and other Episcopal and Jewish clergy, urged House of Representative members, particularly from the Republican majority, to reject the budget cuts. Schumer said Democrats need four Republicans to flip to stop the bill from moving on to the U.S. Senate.

"Feeding people who are hungry, particularly feeding hungry children is not a partisan issue. It's a moral issue," Schumer said. "If the bill passes, Long Island kids will lose meals, and a whole lot more families and the elderly will be forced to choose between buying groceries or paying the rent, buying their prescription drugs or buying food."

Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) did not yet respond to Schumer's remarks.

"No legislation has been finalized. I’m actively meeting with leadership and members to ensure that whatever language emerges delivers real wins for Long Islanders," said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) in a statement.

Island Harvest has already lost access next year to $2 million in funding, which supported purchases of nearly 1 million pounds of food, after federal Department of Agriculture cuts to the New York Food for New York Families program. The program required that money to be spent at farms and food producers located in New York.

Island Harvest has had to borrow from other emergency funding to continue buying fresh produce for local growers.

Katie Baldwin, from the nonprofit Amber Waves Farm in Amagansett, said they specifically grow fresh fruits and vegetables for the SNAP program and continues to sell and donate produce to food banks and accept SNAP benefits. 

"We're continuing to do the work, despite the federal cuts, and I think that anybody who's experienced this recently, where their program funds were cut, they are making the choice to pivot and continue on and be resilient and find a different way," Baldwin said. "Because that is the way of the farmer. So I urge that we keep the SNAP program, both to support a farmer and a family in need children."