18 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • MAY 2020
WHO THE CORONAVIRUS RELIEF PACKAGE MISSED
There were 119,400 jobs in leisure and
hospitality and 96,200 in food services
and drinking places in March on Long
Island before the economy closed or collapsed,
according to the New York State
Department of Labor. Today, though,
some of the people who fed the Island
are facing their own financial struggles
as an already vulnerable industry
takes a hit.
Jeffrey Reynolds, CEO of Family and
Children’s Association (FCA), a large
nonprofit social services organization
based in Mineola, says many workers
who helped feed the region have found
themselves in financial distress with
little savings.
“Some of them are not able to do delivery.
They were washing dishes or
busboys. You saw their bikes locked up
outside. Those jobs were eliminated,”
Reynolds says. “They don’t necessarily
have a license or a car.”
While the federal government has put
in place programs and expanded and
extended unemployment, some workers
were off the books, undocumented,
or simply afraid that claiming benefits
to which they’re entitled could lead to
problems.
“They might think that using services
available to them will cause a problem
in the process of getting the residency
or citizenship,” says Mayra Correa, a
family support supervisor at FCA, noting
that all immigrants have the right
to many services.
The hospitality industry also has been
impacted, with the Long Island Marriott
closing temporarily, leaving many
workers with little savings and hardly
any safety net.
“We’re seeing a lot of independent
contractors who have no work right
now. Construction industry, truckers,”
Pachter adds. “They’re self-employed.
If you’re running a small business and
trying to make ends meet, what are you
supposed to do?”
Pachter, for instance, was approached
in a parking lot by a trucker looking for
work, as a kind of economic epidemic
compounded the medical one. LI’s and
the nation’s growing gig economy,
where people go from assignment to
assignment, went from promising
freedom to bigger problems.
Long Island Cares’ satellites that distribute
food have seen a 64 percent
increase in people seeking food, including
a 30 percent rise in the number
using their services for the first time.
About 7,400 people in March sought
food, including 2,300 who had never
turned to them before.
Homeless Long Islanders, often not visible
from the streets, in parks, often are
out of reach of the system, living in the
woods. Long Island Cares delivers food
to 400 homeless people a month, but
Pachter believes the number is down
amid this crisis.
“Many people are scared to death, so
they are reaching out to family and
social services,” he says. “There are
still a lot of people there.”
Some restaurants and businesses may
not reopen or may reopen with fewer
employees, so some jobs will remain
lost.
“I don’t see all of these jobs coming
back to life overnight,” Reynolds says.
“I would guess that a fair amount of
restaurants, stores and businesses that
closed will probably stay closed.”
Even when businesses reopen, jobs
may not reopen to the same people as
the economy rebounds.
“You may see folks who work in these
jobs squeezed out by people who
worked in retail at stores that didn’t
open again,” Reynolds says.
PRESS BUSINESS
continued from page 17
“Many people are scared to death,” says Paule Pachter
Thank You, Nurses!
Our superheroes in scrubs on the frontlines
of the battle against COVID-19
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