JULY 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 19
POINT OF VIEW
HARRY CHAPIN
HIS SPIRIT LIVES ON
BY PAULE PACHTER
CEO of Long Island Cares, Inc.
During his brief life (1942-1981), Harry
Chapin released more than a dozen albums,
performed 220 concerts a year
with half of them being performed
as benefits for local charities, made
more than 15 appearances on The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,
composed the iconic, Grammy
Award-winning song “Cat’s in the
Cradle,” and founded two nonprofit
organizations, WhyHunger and Long
Island Cares, to raise awareness about
hunger and food insecurity.
In 1980, when Harry Chapin founded
Long Island Cares, Inc. he had two
goals: 1) Raise enough funding and
support to provide emergency food
assistance to an estimated 50,000 Long
Islanders considered to be impacted
by food insecurity, and 2) Focus on
the root causes of hunger and food
insecurity in order to lift people out
of the cycle of poverty.
As we commemorate the 40th Anniversary
of Chapin’s untimely passing
in an automobile accident on the Long
Island Expressway on July 16, Long Island
Cares is taking a closer look and
developing a network-wide response
to the root causes of hunger that impacts
nearly 480,000 Long Islanders
including 79,370 children. Prior to
the Covid-19 pandemic, Long Island
was on the verge of reducing food
insecurity by 40 percent; however,
during the height of the pandemic
an additional 223,000 Long Islanders
joined the ranks of the food insecure
population as a result of job losses,
which increased the population from
259,000.
What Harry Chapin knew 40 years
ago is still true today: Poverty, unemployment,
immigration status,
disabilities, underemployment, homelessness,
veterans status, and systemic
racism impact people's ability to
provide nutritious food to feed their
family. Chapin believed that only by
addressing these root causes could we
have a chance at ending hunger, and
he engaged elected officials, corporate
leaders, and his many fans in his crusade
which Long Island Cares has been
leading for four decades.
Chapin was a key figure in former
President Jimmy Carter’s convening of
a Presidential Commission on Hunger
in 1978. Chapin advocated for sound
social policies and increased government
funding to address the root
causes of hunger. Today, Congress
is once again discussing increased
funding for hunger assistance and
Congressman James McGovern of
Massachusetts is proposing that President
Joe Biden convene a White House
Conference on Hunger to address the
root causes that Chapin described
four decades ago. Asked about what
inspired him to become a lead voice
in Congress on hunger and food insecurity,
McGovern talks about meeting
Harry Chapin in 1978. It’s rewarding
to know that 40 years later, we’re still
talking about Harry Chapin.
“40 years later, we’re still talking about Harry
Chapin.”
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