Rockland Community Against Hunger

A collaboration to provide information, raise awareness, mobilize support, & educate the community about healthy food & nutrition.

Founded in 2011, the Rockland Community Against Hunger (RCAH) brings together a network of food pantries and meal programs, the local Food Bank and local social services agencies. Our primary goal is to provide information about food sources and food-related services to the public, raise awareness of hunger in Rockland County, mobilize support among public and private resources, and educate the community about food and nutrition. TOUCH is a lead agency of RCAH, along with Meals on Wheels of Rockland, BRIDGES, Martin Luther King Community Center of Spring Valley, and Catholic Charities of Rockland.

In 2010, RCAH implemented the Get Fresh Program, working with the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY to distribute food to agencies in Rockland County. This program collects and distributes an average of 50,000 lbs of food every month. Over 5,000,000 pounds have been distributed to feeding programs and to the hungry of Rockland County since its inception! At the height of the Covid pandemic to meet the rising demand, we held the food distributions weekly, from May 2020 through August 2021, providing over 1.4 million meals to the community in that time frame alone!

Our Mission is simple:  To do everything we can to make sure that no one in Rockland County goes hungry.

Who is the Face of Hunger?

  • Hunger or “Food Insecurity” is defined as the lack of dependable access to enough food to sustain a healthy life. Imagine not knowing where your next meal is coming from!
  • The USDA recently reported that 1 in 6 Americans struggle with hunger – including nearly 17 million children.
  • People who are food insecure are often forced to choose between paying for food and everyday necessities such as rent or health care.
  • Children without adequate nutrition are more likely to have cognitive and behavioral development issues.

MYTH: Rockland is affluent with few people who go hungry

  • FACT:  The majority of the people served are food insecure – they do not know where they will find their next meal.
  • FACT: 43,800 people are living below the poverty level in Rockland (1 out of 7) – that’s up from 33,000 just 2 years ago – a 25% increase!
  • FACT: Almost half of the people getting food do NOT qualify for federal nutrition programs and must rely on charitable food assistance.
  • FACT: The number of people asking for help is increasing each year, and includes the working poor and the middle class – people that never had to get food assistance before—the newly unemployed, the underemployed, and families that have at least one parent working.

For more information, please visit the RCAH website at Rocklandhunger.org.