>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour is being made across the country where communities are rallying around efforts to provide food assistance to families in need.

Those efforts are in full force, and they have been since the government shut down, disrupted Snap benefits temporarily, and even though benefits have returned for most Americans who need them, food pantries are still seeing lines of people who need help.

And our listeners have been asking what is going on locally.

Are the benefits fully back?

Do people still have deep needs when it comes to food on a regular basis, and especially with Thanksgiving?

Well, as reported by NPR and ABC News and our team right here at WXXI, this trend is going to continue into the holidays of elevated food need.

We're seeing it in Rochester and the Finger Lakes region leading right into tomorrow's holiday.

And this hour we explore the impact of the disruption that the recent Snap benefits issue had and what it means for families across the area.

We're going to talk about what nonprofit organizations are doing.

Grassroots groups, neighbors helping up to step, stepping up to help neighbors, and a lot more here.

And if you need help, our guests are going to have some ideas throughout the hour about where to go to get that, because there have been a lot of questions about that in studio.

Noelle Evans, education reporter and producer for WXXI News, is with me.

Noelle is working on reporting on exactly this subject that will come out on WXXI News before the end of this week.

Thank you for joining us in studio.

>> Thanks for having me here, Evan.

>> On the line with us for a few minutes.

Mitch Gruber, Senior Vice President and chief impact officer at Foodlink and a member of Rochester City Council.

Mitch, welcome back.

Thanks for being here.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> And someone Mitch knows well is Christy Slavik nonprofit consultant with Upstate Giving and member of Geneva City Council.

Hello, Chris.

>> Hi, Evan.

Nice to see you.

Nice to.

>> Nice to see you, Chris.

Appreciate having you back here.

And just a little bit of a roadmap here.

We're going to talk to Noelle about some of what she has been seeing in our region.

I think Mitch is going to set the scene on just making sure we maybe put a bow on the whole snap story and where that goes.

And, and Chris is going to be able to talk to us about not only what's happening where he is, but also in some smaller communities in the surrounding areas that often don't have as many resources.

Later this hour, we're going to talk to folks from a number of different places who are providing help as well.

And if you've got questions, comments about what's going on with food need, you can send them to Connections at wxxi.org.

We will do our best to get those, answered Noelle briefly here.

Again, your reporting comes out later this week, but I want to start just with your visit to Dimitri House.

You were there yesterday.

>> I was there yesterday.

they have a free community lunch and I sat down and spoke with some folks.

and what I was hearing, I mean, for one thing, from the executive director there is that from mid-October to mid-November, they served 1500 people, about which is double the norm.

And part of their work was also about connecting people to other resources because they tend to you show up, you can only really show up once a month.

And that's supplying you for like the next three days in terms of food supplies.

And they also do it by appointment.

So rather than being in a long line and then potentially getting to the front of that line and the the cupboard, the pantry is empty.

they were making sure that okay, you have this appointment, we have the food that you may need.

And one of the folks that I spoke to who is a snap recipient shared a bit of his story, you know, grew up with quite a bit of housing instability.

had been homeless during 2020 COVID.

And so, you know, getting back on his feet, talking a bit about how a lot of this is tied to trauma recovery for him in terms of being on public assistance, being on Snap, and how that's also related.

to, you know, struggling with substance abuse.

And so, like some of these stories that I'm hearing, and this is somebody who also volunteers is also going to school he was saying that he commutes by bike.

And so in the span of time where he didn't receive his public assistance or his Snap benefits, he at one point was biking.

It was an eight mile round trip to a food pantry because he wouldn't be eligible at just any particular one.

And so that takes away from time to study, that takes away from.

I mean, that's hours, you know and something else that I was hearing from the executive director at Dimitri House Laurie Prizel, is that she was noticing quite a number of folks who she hadn't like new faces, folks that, you know, she called working poor single households.

single, like one person in the household.

Yeah.

And, like, if you don't have that food stamp assistance, you've got rent to pay, you've got utilities, you've got bills, groceries.

What gives?

When you're living paycheck to paycheck and your wages aren't covering the cost of all of that.

>> Yeah.

And and maybe Mitch Gruber can weigh in a little bit on that from the food link perspective here.

So one of the things that Noelle's reporting and again she's giving us a preview of her reporting that comes out later this week.

But that was one of the takeaways when I was reading some of the notes from Noelle this morning.

It's like we know that there are working poor.

We know there are people in need.

I think we saw just how acute and how close to the edge people are with the snap situation.

What are some of the lessons that you take away from that?

Mitch?

>> I mean, I think, you know, I've talked about this on the show a few times, but if there's a silver lining at all around what the last month has, has brought us to this country, it's that when snap became the political football and it really was it was the it was the number one most kind of prominent political football.

in terms of the government shutdown, there was really bipartisan support to get it funded, which I really wouldn't have guessed.

and frankly, just to be incredibly clear and transparent, only 3 or 4 months prior almost, I believe every single Republican Congress member voted to cut Snap benefits or at least change eligibility requirements so the less people could could actually participate in the Snap program.

So I was surprised to see that snap became such a such a flashpoint for folks.

But it's because of the exact stuff that Noelle was talking about.

I mean, I talked to countless people who, you know, I talked to a mother of three who got $740 a month.

There was no way to replace that through charity.

It's just not it's simply not possible to replace 700 plus dollars per month for people to be able to put food on their kid's table.

And no one, regardless of their of their party affiliation, no elected official was happy to see that happening.

So I think we started to see the ball move in the right direction in that regards.

I also just want to put a put a pin on what what Noelle talked about in terms of demand.

I think one of the most interesting stats that we have, I mean, I could tell you about all the pounds we moved, all the dollars that we spent on food in the last month, but I actually think nothing tells a story better than this stat in the last month.

The last month, the month of November, essentially, we saw more than 26,000 visits to the fine food part of our website where people can go look for food pantries look for pop up pantries, find resources, 26,000 visits during the same month.

Last year, there were 6000 visits, four and a half times the number of people came to look at our website and say, where can I find food?

And I think that really tells an important story, that the need was just so tremendous out there.

I'm sorry.

For what what Noelle heard, you know, about the person's the the the requirements for people to be able to get to a food pantry.

I will say that every food pantry has their own standards in terms of how often can someone visit what ZIP code or what area code, or in Chris's case, what school district might food pantry serve?

I would hope that most pantries and I would think most pantries really relaxed a lot of those standards in the last month during crisis mode.

but it's unfortunate that a lot of people did have to work really, really hard to find food pantries that would support them.

What we did at food is made sure they had food in their shelves.

>> One brief follow up to the point you're making, Mitch, about the way that it became a bipartisan issue, despite the funding votes that were Partizan earlier this year, when you were on Connections months ago, everything that happened in the last month, you predicted essentially could and would happen if the funding cuts went ahead as planned in that funding bill.

And so I take the point that it is surprising sometimes to see anything become a bipartisan piece of agreement.

But shouldn't they have known for the lawmakers who didn't like what they saw in the last month, or were distressed by it, or even surprised by it?

They shouldn't have been surprised, should they?

>> You know, again, I don't know that anyone knew what the political football was going to be when it came to the government shutdown.

It could have been a number of things.

I think a lot of people actually predicted that it was going to end up being, you know, air traffic control and, and, and flights here and there and back where people thought at one point it was going to be pay for the military and other federal employees.

It could have been a number of things.

And for whatever reason.

And I'm, you know, I'm going to be curious what historians write about this in 50 years.

For whatever reason, the Trump administration decided to to really put a line in the sand around paying Snap benefits.

Again, we talked about this at length, but they had the contingency funds to be able to pay for this.

They chose not to and allowed this to become the political football.

And ultimately, I don't think anyone feels very good about the way this ended.

And thank goodness, I do want to just kind of kind of level set.

Thank goodness we're in New York State because and I'm not going to say that we did things perfectly here.

I'm not going to say that there weren't there wasn't room for improvement.

But Snap benefits were paid out, starting, I think, on the 12th or 13th of the month.

And typically it takes ten days for everyone in New York State, millions of people to get their Snap benefits.

The state truncated that to five days.

So between I think it was between the 12th and the 16th, every single person got their full November benefit.

And to be frank, typically it's from the first to the 10th of the month.

So people really missed at most a week, maybe a week and a half of time.

And that is what the emergency food system is built for.

That is exactly what we're able to do.

People like Lori at Dimitri House and her staff, people like Chris and the Boys and Girls Club in Geneva.

I know Deb McLean is going to be on the call later from Geneseo.

This is what we're meant for food.

Think raised about a million and a half dollars.

Spent it on food, put it out to communities.

We can we can do that.

We can't do is replace Snap benefits in perpetuity.

And there are a lot of states where it took them a lot longer to get Snap benefits paid out.

In fact, I believe there's probably some states where they're still not paid out in full.

But thank goodness that was not the case in New York.

>> before we let Mitch go Mitch, just make sure we understand here with snap, there is no reason to think now that anything is going to get in the way of Snap benefits, at least for the next year, for most or so for most Americans.

Is that correct?

>> Correct.

A couple of things I want to share.

And certainly want to want to make sure I'm offering this communication to the community as often as I can.

Number one, there were a lot of bogus headlines in the last couple of weeks that everyone who's a Snap participant is going to have to reapply.

This was a throwaway comment made by the USDA secretary and every every newspaper and news outlet picked it up.

I got a lot of calls from folks.

There is no plan to make everybody reapply.

Everyone has to recertify anyways on an annual basis.

That doesn't change.

But this was just a sensational headline by the USDA.

There's no plan for that.

So continue to participate in the program as you have.

To your point, Evan.

the Department of Agriculture's budget has been voted on through September of 2026, so we may very well hear about a partial government shutdown again starting in January.

That partial government shutdown will not include Snap benefits.

They are funded through September of 2026.

The final thing, and the one that really is in a lot of ways, the most challenging to to describe and to talk about is the changes made by the big bill passed in July that drastically changes eligibility for people to participate in Snap.

And those changes are still happening.

I want to be clear about this.

There are people who Snap benefits are going to be impacted, not by government shutdown or government funding, but by the new realities of the big bill from July that talks about a Bods.

A Bot is an acronym able bodied adult without dependents A, B, A, D, and now they've changed the definition of what an A bot is.

So if you're over 55 and under 64, you're in a bot.

If your children are over the age of 14, you're an a bot.

If you're a veteran, you're no longer exempted.

If you're experiencing homelessness, you're no longer exempted.

All of those individuals who are no longer exempted or are now considered a Bods have to comply with the work requirement in order to maintain their Snap benefits.

Now, just to I know I just threw a lot at folks.

I'm going to simplify the message this way.

If you are someone whose eligibility changes because of work requirements under the new law, you will get a letter from your county, DHS.

Save that letter.

Read that letter, call us at foodlink at ( 585)413-5091 to talk about that letter.

Go into your county Department of Social Services to talk about the letter.

It will lay out very clearly what the changes are.

Nobody's being kicked off a snap.

Benefits tomorrow.

Everybody's going to have a several month window to come into compliance with work requirements, which may mean work.

It may also mean volunteer service or community service.

The last piece, and this is so important and I'm going to I'm going to send you the link to post Evan, right after I'm done.

Yep, yep.

And away over here is that even though people are now going to be told you have to comply with the work requirement, many folks are still going to be exempted in other ways.

Let me give you an example.

If I'm a Snap participant and I'm taking care of my my sick grandmother, I am eligible for an exemption.

I do not have to comply with work requirements.

Why would the county DHS ever know that they've never asked if I take care of my elderly grandmother before, they don't know.

So we developed with Together Now a really good screening tool that I believe is going to be a national model, a really good screening tool that anyone can just go online to Monroe County's DHS snap website, click a link self screen.

You may be eligible for other exemptions from work requirements.

Make sure the county knows that.

So that way you are not subject to losing your benefits.

When all of these changes become a reality.

I hope that's clear as mud, but I'm happy to know.

>> I think it's pretty clear.

I think you're doing a great job with that, Mitch.

Anything that you want to get in there for Mitch before we let him go?

No.

>> Just one quick thing.

And just respectfully when it comes to saying that, like, every news outlet covered this sensational headline, I don't recall that we did.

And just to say that I mean, like, one sensational headline that is misinformed is too many, but also to recognize that there are still journalists out here that are fact checking as well.

>> Okay.

Yeah.

I mean.

>> That.

>> Part and I mean, the one aspect of this that I really appreciate, everything that you've spelled out here, Mitch, one of the things that I really take away from, you know, sitting down at Dimitri house, but also stopping by action for a better community is just like the impact on people's lives, like an action for a better community.

They have these programs for folks to help with job readiness.

Like Head Start.

All of these things that are supposed to help people move out of poverty, like.

And so when you take away something as basic as food security, that makes it harder for people to show up to these programs, and that's just something that I really take away from the reporting that I've done so far.

that aspect to all of this, too.

>> We look forward to your reporting later this week.

We're going to let Noelle get back to work on the third floor or wherever it is you're going.

>> Thank you.

Will be there.

>> Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Noelle Evans.

Mitch Gruber, your generous with your time.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and the team at Foodlink.

Thank you for the clarity on all of this.

And I know we'll talk again soon.

>> Yeah.

And just last thing, continue.

Let's all continue together to advocate and to lean into the emergency food network.

Food.

Think New York is a place where you can find your local food pantry.

Every one of them could use additional supports and resources, including just your time, volunteer volunteerism, and certainly food think is always happy to be a resource for people.

So be in touch.

thank you Evan.

Good.

good luck talking to Chris.

He's a wily one, but I'm sure he'll have a good conversation.

And happy holidays to everyone.

>> All right, that's Mitch Gruber from Foodlink, member of Rochester City Council, and we appreciate everything that Foodlink has done to help us be a conduit for information for the community.

Mitch is senior vice president and chief impact officer at Foodlink.

And Noel Evans, education reporter and producer for WXXI News.

Thank you again.

We'll see you reporting later this week.

Here.

I'm going to bring in Chris Lavin now.

And Chris and I are going to talk and we're going to talk to some folks later this hour as well.

who do some, some work in some of these spaces.

But Chris, as a nonprofit consultant with Upstate Giving and a member of Geneva City Council, I know you know Mitch.

Well.

I know you've worked closely.

Can you set the 30,000 foot view from the the towns, the counties, the areas that you serve for just how acute this problem has been, especially during the shutdown and during the snap confusion.

>> Sure, we're heading into a holiday, so let me try and be not a nattering nabobs of negativism.

But let's let me give you a couple things that warmed my heart the last couple days.

As we looked into what Noel's reporting on there.

There's been a unification of people because of the this this snap attack.

about the work that's being done, churches that have doubled the number of meals they're giving out at the holiday season here.

the food pantries, like the boys and Girls Club and the center of concern in Geneva, places down into Livingston County.

Penn Yan, over in Seneca County that are all seeing about a 25% increase in donations, as well as the interest from the public.

There were 150 cars yesterday in Geneva coming through to get food for the holiday at the Boys and Girls Club, and 441 families being served by the the local Catholic church.

These are good things and they're bipartisan.

They're people that are clearly on the other side of the the political divide.

There's a little bar in Geneva called the Cedar Inn, which has 225 Thanksgiving meals being delivered from what's a very conservative kind of Irish, Notre Dame fan bar that doesn't, you know, that has differences among some of the people in Geneva politically, but they're all pitching in.

Those are good things.

But I also want to say that in my survey of what's happening out in the countryside, where I do some of my work, these efforts are they're not really related so much to the the, the snap.

Those efforts were underway a long time before because of the food insecurity.

That's that was there in some ways, we can credit the great orange one for having brought some attention to the the great deficit in incomes between people that led to seniors having to choose between drugs they need for their to keep their life going and food that they need to keep their life going.

And those things have been underway in places like Geneva, Dansville, Penn Yan out into Seneca County for some time now.

And this is all thrust us all together much more closely.

I also I don't want to be seen as a blind supporter of just but Foodlink is an amazing organization.

It was always it's seen as a Rochester based place, but its tentacles go out into the region.

And I think this crisis has made people understand that this is not a Rochester organization.

This is a regional organization that's doing so much good to put food pressure into homes.

And it's the Snap issue doesn't make the problems go away.

It just puts us back to where we were before, which was trying to end food insecurity in the Finger Lakes region from Rochester all the way down to Dansville, from Seneca County, all the way over to Livingston County.

>> You know, Chris, when I think about the impact of a number of different things happening at the federal level, we focus sometimes or sometimes I get my head stuck in Rochester.

We're a big region.

We want to cover every town, every county, every part of it.

That's a lot of the work that you do.

Certainly.

And when we look at, for example, health care, the possible closure of rural hospitals, when we talk about different services going away, we had a conversation recently on this program about volunteer emergency services in places like Branchport, Keuka Park, where they've got a really robust department of volunteers who do amazing work.

But but a lot of departments are shrinking and they're losing volunteers.

And so in, in general can you just set a little bit of the scene of the feeling in more rural places where it might get more desperate before it gets desperate elsewhere?

And the way that I mean, I don't know how you mitigate some of this.

I think Mitch said you can't volunteer all of it, all of the problem away here.

You can't triage this forever.

If there's closures, if organizations can't do what they need to do.

So, I mean, how do you see maybe the rural versus I don't say rural versus urban, but some of those dynamics there.

>> Yeah, I don't think that the distinction of rural and urban and rural and urban really mean as much anymore.

I, I receive care at Saint at, at in at Strong Memorial Hospital.

I drive in from Geneva.

People come from Penn Yan to Rochester for medical care.

Boys hospital in in down in Dansville is staffed and operated by strong.

We're becoming a regionalized service operation in many, many different facets.

Not just food.

and not just medical.

And we have to get past the idea that somehow we're not all in this together.

and food is a is just a wonderful thing, though, because when you put food into somebody's house, you're not only getting the benefit of giving that of saving them on the purchase of the their own food but we're giving them good, healthy food, which is a double whammy.

And frankly, it's an expression of love and support that is more intimate and more meaningful than a check in the mail.

usually is.

So it's we have to.

And this is before the the snap can't be replaced.

Neither can the the money.

That and food that comes to a place like foodlink through the from the federal government.

Those things need to be part of the expression of the common weal of America.

But the things that are happening at a more intimate level, the church that adds 200 more meals a week and also opens up a food pantry for Saturday when there is no one open in town.

The those things are beyond just the food.

They are the kind of human human connection that I think really is missing in a lot of the social services these days.

It's not just give me how much money can I get, but how how do we have the care, engagement and understanding of those each other's lives?

in a way that can start to address some of the things Noel was talking about, which is that we're trying to not just put food on your table, we're trying to put spirit in your heart.

Opportunity a little bit more accessible.

Junior colleges, I think, are another untapped asset for reaching out to the kinds of work that we need to do with people in the region, the politicians need to get over the idea that they're only responsible for the people within their district.

The people of Geneva that that work at Hobart and William Smith College is live in Ithaca.

They live in Rochester.

They live in Clifton Springs.

We are a regional economy in many ways.

we need to look at police and fire and look at how we're how we're delivering services so that things like food, medicine, family life I think in Geneva, I'm very proud of the work Geneva is doing as a group to take pressure off the school districts so that they can focus on school work while we focus on supporting families better so that the kids can perform better in school.

Okay, get enough food.

>> But I got I got no, I gotta I got to jump in and ask you about one other point you make there about, you know, how politicians maybe see this and, and I don't mean to make this political, but I want to get your take on something that I asked Mitch about, which is that the thing that surprised me was that any political leader would have been surprised at the outcome once the shutdown happened and once snap went away, because I think Mitch is pointing out something important here.

As you already know, Chris, which is that we didn't need the shutdown to see snap cuts.

We're going to see Medicaid cuts after the 26 elections, although those seem to have been timed to dodge some political accountability.

With the midterms.

But the idea that we're not going to see upheaval with Medicaid cuts, I'm not endorsing cuts, funding, whatever.

I'm just saying if you have don't don't have any idea who your constituents are and what the impact is going to be, that's what's surprising to me.

How could you be surprised when a lot of your constituents rely on food stamps, when a lot of your constituents are on Medicaid?

A lot of the people who voted for you are on Medicaid or on food stamps.

And then all of a sudden there's upheaval.

They I don't think they should have been surprised, but I guess that's just me.

What do you think, Chris?

>> I ran a bureau in Washington for about ten years overseeing the work of Washington and how it works.

And I know that I'm not there now, but the the level of concern for the things you're talking about, the overall help and support of people, what kind of culture do we want to run?

I can get political about it.

When I grew up here in upstate New York, we had people like Barbara Cannibal and and others like him who were conservative, Republican, fiscally, culturally, much more liberal right now.

They'd be driven out of politics.

And I somehow we have to get back to the idea that I see here around the holidays, where people who won't talk to each other about politics all agree that taking food over to your neighbor's house is a good thing, and needed in a culture that's not doesn't have equitable incomes right now.

So it gives me hope.

And maybe we can thank the great orange one for having pushed the button on, pointing out how much how much we need to do to be to remain human and caring and kind, to have a country that we're proud of.

>> I'm only laughing because I, I thought I heard you say that the first time, and now the second time, I do realize you're saying the great orange one.

Okay, I want in my I was just mentally checking how Chris is referring to the president, but.

>> Yeah.

I'm sorry.

>> Some people may find some offense there, but go ahead.

>> Well, you know, it's good.

It's good to disagree and to do it publicly and honestly.

So.

>> here's what we're going to do.

Chris is going to stay with us, and he's going to address some other questions that have come in via email in a moment.

After we come back from break, we're going to welcome Deb McLean, who is a part time manager of the Geneseo Groveland Emergency Food Pantry.

We're going to talk to Carly Leighton from Jewish Family Services coming up, and I want to give a little credit to our colleagues at City Magazine.

Editor Leah Stacy covered a number of local hospitality businesses that stepped up during the government shutdown to help people who weren't receiving Snap assistance.

You know, they weren't looking for credit, but this is a kind of story that you ought to hear.

The efforts began with Jack's extra fancy and pizza wizard, and it grew from there.

Just a couple of the stories related there.

Pizza wizard.

They actually got flooded with requests here.

You could buy a $5 cheese pizza.

and they ended up which is a big discount.

They sold more than 1700.

They had to slow it down the offer just because they were really, really flooded.

You could also take a ticket from their board and receive a cheese pizza, no questions asked.

but again, I think they had to slow that down just because of the demand.

So very generous of them there.

The Red Fern.

was doing a number of things, asking people to donate to the People's Pantry of Rochester or contribute to community meals.

And if you're in need at Redfern, you could visit for a low dough burrito or a pint of soup, no questions asked, no proof needed.

Montgomery Court they were telling folks you could they were going to give away three 30 breakfast sandwiches for free every morning, no questions asked.

And I'm not even sure if they're still doing that.

That's an amazing thing.

But those are just examples of what a community was doing.

And there's a lot more that I couldn't even mention.

And again, they're not asking for the credit.

You ought to just know that in the hard times that we saw, a lot of heart was shown.

And when we come back, we're going to talk to some more organizations doing this kind of work on Connections.

Coming up in our second hour, we go to the movies.

We go to the theater with critics Joe Lester and Dave Andreatta, who recently wrote for city about wicked for good, and Hamilton.

And if it seems like there's nothing new about The Wizard of Oz or Hamilton, it turns out there is a lot that is rather fresh and interesting or even important, and the critics are going to explain we'll have some fun taking your reviews as well.

Next, our.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Lento, a farm to table restaurant featuring seasonal ingredients from local farms.

Information on holiday gatherings, online at Lento Restaurant and Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.

Working with members to find health coverage for every stage of life.

Helping to make care and coverage more accessible in more ways for more people across the Rochester community.

Details online at excellus.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson and I want to welcome Deb McLain on the line with us.

A part time manager of the Geneseo Groveland Emergency Food Pantry.

Hi, Deb.

Welcome.

How are you?

>> I'm good.

Thanks.

How are you?

>> Very good.

We're just going to grab you for a few minutes.

I know it's a busy week for you.

Always is.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about what you guys do and what you have seen?

Really, in the last month?

Plus, with the shutdown, with questions about food insecurity, et cetera.

>> So we're a food pantry in Geneseo.

We're open three days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 2 and Wednesdays from 4 to 630.

And we serve primarily residents of the Geneseo School District.

we've been seeing slowly over the summer and into October was one of our busiest months.

We've been seeing a gradual and steady increase in the number of clients that visit the pantry.

and on on November the last week of October into the first week of November was very crazy.

We we were anticipating a surge in demand as the Snap benefits were delayed.

So we actually changed our distribution model from a client choice model to a prepackaged box so that we could serve as many families as possible.

and we saw an uptick of I want to say 200% on that.

That first Tuesday that we were open in November.

>> Wow.

and what is what is this week typically like for you?

What is it like now, the day before Thanksgiving?

>> Well, we're actually closed today.

yesterday was our last day before Thanksgiving.

We did a big Thanksgiving dinner distribution on Saturday, where we have a combination of,, delivery to folks who request it or pick up at the pantry.

And then in anticipation of a surge in demand because of the snap attack, I saw that I liked that we did an additional distribution yesterday, so we put out an appeal for Thanksgiving dinner fixings, and we have a local business establishment that donated turkeys to us.

So we were able to help more families.

yesterday than we typically would because they normally wouldn't have signed up for our holiday program because they didn't need the assistance.

>> Okay.

And before I let you go, then I'm going to ask you the kind of question that I think our previous guests have been weighing in on, which is did we learn anything new about our communities during the shutdown?

And my guess is someone like you, you're about as close to food insecurity as anybody.

And maybe there wasn't anything new that you saw.

I think a lot of people are seeing, like I said, just how close to the edge many people or families are.

What did was there anything that you saw that surprised you or anything that you think should get our attention when it comes to food insecurity?

Deb?

>> well, first of all, the community of Geneseo stepped up in a huge way since the beginning of November.

the food, every day, just food rolls in.

The donations have been rolling in.

The community has just really stepped up in, in just a phenomenal way.

It's very, very heartwarming.

but we've also saw people come in who, you know, they tend to make snap work for them.

And they, you know, live within their snap budget.

That had to come use the food pantry for the first time because they didn't have any snap.

>> Yeah.

And I imagine that's a lot of people in those categories.

Deb, thank you for the work that you're doing for you and the team there.

Happy Thanksgiving to you.

And continued good work in the New Year.

Thanks for being with us.

>> All right.

Thank you and happy Thanksgiving.

>> Deb McClain, part time manager of the Geneseo Groveland Emergency Food Pantry, talking about a community that stepped up.

And that's I'm hearing that we hear that everywhere.

I mean, that is something that Chris Levin, I have yet to hear somebody say, you know what?

I'm really surprised our community did not come forward.

And I think what that shows us is no matter how divided we feel, people do care about their neighbors.

People will still get up and help.

And I'm not trying to be all gauzy, sort of cheesy.

I think that's just a fact of of what it is like to still be an American in this country.

What do you think, Chris?

>> I do think that after ten years of working in a in in nonprofit world, I think the thing I failed at most was making the distinction between giving services, but creating an environment in which people connect about their needs and become friends, and that it's more just it's not just a financial or a food transaction.

It's also an expression of caring.

And there's more of that going on now.

And that's a great thing to see that that will really address some of the real problems that the persistent problems.

We also want to try and figure out how did people get what's behind their food insecurity.

and Geneva, we did a survey car by car in our drive thrus, promising not to market to them, but to get a sense.

And then the Hobart William Smith students and I did a study of the impact on the families and some of the monthly impact of this kind of help was between 450 and $500 a month.

Wow, that's a car payment.

It's insurance.

But even more than that, it became a culture of support and caring.

And I think that that's that's what what I hope we can all take away.

Get to know the people you're giving to and show an interest in their life, as well as their food, as well as their kids.

>> Well, well said that a lot of beautiful stuff there.

And speaking of, let's bring in another guest on the phone, the Chief Impact officer for Jewish Family Services is Carly Leighton, who is with us now.

Carly, welcome.

How are you?

>> Good.

I'm good.

Thanks so much for having me.

And happy Thanksgiving.

>> Well, and the same to you and the team at Jewish Family Services.

Can you describe what it has been like in this last, you know, for six, eight weeks for you guys?

>> Sure.

We we run Brighton Food Cupboard, which is located in Brighton and serves four ZIP codes, all of Brighton, part of Henrietta and part of the east side of Rochester.

our model's a little different in that we actually deliver food once a week.

we have a lot of people with transportation issues, which is an issue to get to certain food cupboards.

So we want to make sure that that gets to them and that they don't have to get to us.

and I think, you know, I've been listening and really, the story is the same.

And really, I think the part is, even before the snap crisis, we were seeing our numbers go up a lot.

last year we delivered over 164,000 pounds of food, and that's just not enough.

we've had, you know, 66% rise in the number of calls, all the numbers that kind of your other guests have talked about.

and I think the other piece is that, you know, when you have an empty pantry, it's not just the food that's at a loss, but you know, it affects more than that.

You have stress, you have fear.

And we've also seen a huge increase in the number of therapy sessions we're delivering at the counseling center at JFS because people yes, of course, if you look at, you know, the hierarchy of needs, food is there.

But then feeling like you can take care of your family, feeling like you know where your next meal is coming from is a huge burden to mental health.

So we're seeing it.

Yes.

In our food cupboard.

and also in other parts of the community that we serve now.

>> I mean, that's interesting.

Probably not surprising when you really think about it.

It's not necessarily the sign of a super healthy economy.

When this many people need food assistance.

And yet, Carly, I, I hope for anyone in that category, they feel some solidarity that no one who needs snap, no one who needs food stamps, no one who needs a food pantry is alone in that.

I hope that helps.

I mean, I hope people don't feel any stigma or shame.

>> No, I think that you're right in that.

And actually what we heard a lot, because we also had a huge outpouring from the community, serve Food link was obviously a huge support, as they are to all of the community food cupboards.

But we heard from so many people, you know, last year or in the past or when I was a kid, I was in this situation and now that I'm not, I'm giving back.

So I think there's also that feeling that you know, any of us could be, you know, a paycheck, two paychecks away from that.

We maybe have been.

So that feeling that I'm going to now give a little bit and we've had people send, you know, hundreds of pounds of food and we've had people drop off one jar of peanut butter, and all of it really is just shows that the community doesn't have that stigma, that they want people to eat, and that eating is not, you know, it's a right, it's not a privilege.

And we want our community to stand up and be healthy in all the ways that they can be.

>> Before I let you go, how can people help in the future on this issue?

>> So I think just, you know, keeping the food coming, you know, obviously we get a lot of our food from Foodlink, but we could not do it without the benefit of donations.

Monetary and food.

We have an Amazon wish list.

And really importantly, just call us if you need help.

We have a helpline ( 585)461-0114 or visit us at JFS Rochester.

Org for to your point, if you need any help, but definitely you can sign up.

you know, we did have a wait list for because we had so much volume, but we have committed to serving 66% more people.

over November, December and just really need the community to help us do that, just to make sure we can get people through these holidays and see where the situation lands.

After that.

>> Carly, thank you again to the team at Jewish Family Services.

You're helping a lot of people, and we've been trying to kind of take a little tour across the region this hour showing the impact of the shutdown, the snap cuts when they happened, but also food insecurity in general, especially on the eve of Thanksgiving.

So thanks for what you're doing.

We appreciate it.

And we'll talk to you in the new Year.

>> Thanks so much.

Thanks for having us.

You have a good holiday.

>> That's Carly Layton joining us.

And Chris Lavin is with me, who is a nonprofit consultant with Upstate Giving and a member of Geneva City Council.

And I don't mean to sort of wax too philosophical here or even just put kind of a political scientist hat on.

But, Chris, when you think about the future, there's going to be disruption one way or another in the job market that is already pretty unstable.

So people worry about what A.I.

is going to do.

And there's talk about, well, do we need UBI in the future?

Elon Musk was saying recently that most people won't need jobs, and that there will.

And that's a good he thinks that's a good thing.

I'm not positive that that's a good thing.

But in Elon Musk's view, A.I.

will do most of the work for us and we'll just get whatever leisure time we want, and then we'll just share some kind of benefit.

I suppose.

you know, that's a multi-billionaire not worried about the concentration of wealth, which is a whole thing.

But, Chris, do you think that in the future we're going to see a wiser approach to understanding that there should be no stigma if you need assistance in any way, food assistance, et cetera.?

And do you expect that need to rise given all of these dynamics, the current economy, future possible changes, et cetera.

>> You know, not to get too egg heady about it, but I was just recently reading an Ann Rand because I wanted to see where did this part of America, where did we lose our our empathy and our caring for each other from a revolutionary days which are now on PBS every every week in the documentary where we wanted freedom, we wanted all these great things.

But we're we've lost our way on the personal caring for each other.

>> And you're reading Ayn Rand Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged.

>> Yeah, I did too, because I think that that kind of thinking has pushed us in a bad direction, and I wanted to understand it better.

Where did this come from that people thought giving too much, caring too much was a detriment.

So I just started reading it and I came away saying, we just have to get back to the fact that that we are a caring nation.

We 250 years we have been we're in a we're in a downspout downturn internationally and nationally.

We are at a great place of economic inequality.

And these are things we have to work on.

I can tell you, if we don't have jobs like today, we will have jobs.

People are not going to get up in the morning.

I just retired in May from my job, and I know I don't want to get up in the morning and have nothing to do that matters to others and matters to the community.

I'm in.

So I don't I think that's that's a billionaire who also also works harder than any billionaire in the world.

In his own way, I wish he didn't.

But it's it's it's I, I just think we're we're missing the personal contact.

Even in these efforts to help each other.

Now, we see them around holidays or around crises.

But I think we should cook dinner for the old man next door who's probably not cooking as often or as well.

From time to time.

Leave him food, even if it goes, goes, goes a wanting.

You're expressing a concern for each other and food is a great way to do it.

I'm going to make this a dial in.

financial show.

I'm.

I'm announcing today.

I'm going to donate $500 to Foodlink to help through this because that 500 will pulse through the community into thousands over the next few months.

So join me in doing that.

>> let me read an email from Paul in Brighton who says your panel has good information.

As usual.

My question is, how does the information regarding Snap and or related programs get to the population most likely to need those services?

What do you think, Chris?

>> you know, I've been again, not it's not all about me, but I was a journalist for 40 years, and then I became a elected official, and I've been pulling my hair out for months now as to whether I could do more good for the community by doing journalism than being on a list.

A fragmented council and I think that that's a missing, another missing piece of the puzzle here is facts, figures and understanding that leads to empathy and caring.

And journalism is in a in a real crisis.

I Lord you, heaven and WXXI for coming as close to consistent, daily caring across news.

the local and regional news.

But we are.

I was the editor of the Times Union for city, editor of the Times Union for a while here in Rochester, and then went on to San Diego and Saint Petersburg and in all those cities.

Journalism is is dying locally, and we need to get better information out to people so they can make good, better decisions about their life and their politics.

>> Well, and maybe as we get ready to wrap up here, maybe that's an important tangent that is related here.

We obviously believe very strongly, as you say, of the need for community minded, outstanding journalism, professional, hard working and local.

And the founders really, you know, I never want to speak for the founders.

I've been thinking a lot about it because of the Ken Burns American Revolution series and it's always perilous to say, well, the founders would have said, because, you know, different times, I don't think the founders would have wanted to see the death of local print or the death of local journalism, to the extent that they've seen, because so much of the discourse now is about national, national, national.

And we do a lot of that here on this program, because that's what people want to talk about, and we understand that.

But we also do a lot of local and we do a lot of regional, and we do a lot of state coverage.

And when your times unions and when your local papers and when you're really the messenger posts and all of the different ways that the communities get covered when they go away and all that is left is a focus on the National.

I think it concentrates the idea in the minds of Americans that that's what matters most, when so much that matters is what Geneva City Council is doing, or Rochester City Council, or the county legislature.

But that's not as sexy and it doesn't get covered.

What's the cost of that?

Chris?

>> Oh, it's terrible.

I got myself into local city government trying to understand as a journalist, essentially where where did we lose our way here on some of the key issues for this region?

How do we get people caring beyond their own school district or beyond their own?

municipality for the ability to do things?

right now we just tax people to death in upstate New York, and I'm not I'm a left leaning liberal of of the highest order.

But they think in Geneva because I'm fiscally concerned about what we can do as a community.

But there's no journalism to really let the local people explain, understand what they're doing, what their elected officials are doing, what the, their the cost of living is doing to seniors, to the poor.

And we just we need to reboot on a lot of fronts.

And I'm hoping that this rough patch in American culture and the feet, the food feeding of our own people sends us back in a better direction soon.

>> I think that's well said.

And I think to Chris's, the extension of the point he's making there when you have robust local and regional journalism, you can do accountability journalism when people can't eat.

And some of that is because of a change in policy.

If you don't have journalists, it's hard to get, you know, demand answers.

And I understand some politicians won't take calls, won't respond, won't do interviews, will only talk to friendly press.

But that matters to enough of the word gets out about that and people understand what they're looking at.

When you don't have journalism, it's awfully hard to see that.

So, Chris, for all of the work you've done in that sphere, thank you.

Thanks for joining us this hour and getting us up to speed on what you are seeing and come back and talk to us sometime.

Have a happy Thanksgiving, sir.

>> I will and thank you for the work you do.

It's it's more important than people know.

>> That's Chris Lavin doing such important work for the community and now serving on Geneva City Council.

So the next time we talk to Chris, it'll be, just a good old fashioned grilling of sorts.

He'll put his political hat on.

we appreciate Chris.

Thanks to Mitch Gruber from Foodlink and from for all of the guests getting us up to speed on what's happening with food in our community, more Connections coming up in just a moment.

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