"If there is anything Cecilia Santana and Rosa Ogando learned during their recent senior center field trip to neighborhood grocer Shop & Stop, it is about living a healthier lifestyle.

Located at St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church, the pantry typically provides more than 250 families with fresh produce and dry food each Monday.

The need for emergency food increased dramatically since the pandemic and the NW Bronx Food Justice Coalition is right there building partnerships, accessing emergency food supplies, building food pantry capacity and coming up with innovative ways to teach about nutrition while social distancing.

How could hunger soar if poverty does not? The possible explanations shed light on how people are faring in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. And they bear on the deadlocked policy debate between Congress and the Trump administration over whether to continue expanded jobless benefits, which expire in several days.