By Kevin Deutsch
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Efforts to feed the hungry in the Bronx got a boost this month thanks to a 10,000 pound food donation to some of the borough’s neediest citizens.
Goya Foods, the largest Hispanic-owned food company in the United States, delivered the meals to the Catholic Charities Community Services center, located at the Mosaic Beacon food pantry in the Bronx.
The Ogden Avenue pantry hosted a related event Aug. 7 to honor the National Dominican Day Parade, handing out water and bags of groceries to more than 200 local families in attendance.
Goya’s donations are being distributed among Catholic Charities’ Bronx-based food pantries, organizers said. There, the food will provide a total of 16,667 meals to hungry New Yorkers.
Research shows more than 26 percent of Bronx residents experience food insecurity—defined as being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.
That percentage places the borough among the hungriest counties in the country, according to Hunger Free America, a national nonprofit group working to end domestic hunger.
The number includes more than 20 percent of all Bronx children, nearly 17 percent of working adults, and almost 24 percent of seniors, according to federal data analyzed by the group.
About 82 Percent of the borough’s emergency food programs reported an increase in people served last year, the group said.