Williamsburg now has its own kosher food pantry

South Williamsburg got its first standalone kosher food pantry this week, and per Brooklyn Paper‘s coverage of the opening, the ribbon-cutting brought out more firepower than a neighborhood pantry opening usually does: Governor Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Comptroller Brad Lander, Rabbi David Niederman and Met Council CEO David Greenfield all showed up to the W Mall on Flushing Avenue for it.

The pantry is run out of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, in partnership with the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, and it’s not a one-off holiday drive: according to the report, UJO will operate it year-round from here on. On opening night, the staff handed out food to 400 families. That’s huge.

There were also speeches: Hochul called it “an extraordinary day” and Greenfield mentioned how kosher food costs more, there are fewer competitors keeping prices down and High Holiday grocery bills hit families that are already stretched thin at the worst possible time of year. Met Council says demand is up 44% over last year.

Zoom out and this pantry is one piece of something much bigger. Citing Met Council’s own figures, Brooklyn Paper reports the organization is distributing just over 2 million pounds of kosher food across 162 sites in all five boroughs this High Holiday season, including 13 sites it runs directly, with more than 15 organizations participating for the first time. A separate Hoodline report on the same opening notes last year’s push delivered 1.4 million pounds to over 200,000 people through roughly 140 partners, so, whichever way you slice it, this year’s operation is bigger, which means the need behind it is bigger too.

Worth sitting with, especially heading into Rosh Hashanah: this is one of the wealthiest Jewish communities in the country in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, and there’s still a 44% jump in families who can’t put a holiday meal on the table without help. The pantry on Flushing Avenue is a good thing, it’s also a pretty clear answer to anyone who assumes food insecurity in this community isn’t a real problem.