Long Island Hunger Funding Map

Operating since

More than 35 years

Organizations funded

~2,700 statewide

Application tracks

Three, for 2026–27

State contact

(518) 402-7333

The one most small pantries miss

HPNAP is not a competitive foundation grant and should not be treated like one. It puts state and federal funds into improving the quality of food distributed by emergency food relief organizations — food banks, pantries, soup kitchens and emergency shelters. The Department of Health’s own programme page says that “for more than 35 years, HPNAP has provided state and federal funds to improve the quality of food distributed to an estimated 2,700 Emergency Food Relief Organizations (EFRO) in New York State.”

You do not apply to Albany directly. Access runs through your regional food bank — which is why organizations that qualify go years without HPNAP: they look for a state application form, find none, and stop. See the routing question at the top of this page before you call anyone.

The three 2026–27 tracks, and they are separate applications

• ●Food Grant — lines of credit to purchase nutritious food, plus food-safety and sanitation supplies.
• ●OS — Operating Support Grant. The closest thing to unrestricted money on this entire page, which matters because both foundation funders below exclude general operating support.
• ●CE — Community Education Grant. A separate track most agencies never apply to.
• ⚠Long Island Cares posts a 2026–2027 Application Checklist and a 2026–2027 HPNAP Workshops listing alongside all three application forms. No 2026–27 dates are published beside them. Its HPNAP FAQ page is a cycle behind: on 9 September 2026 it still read “Contract Year: 2025-2026” and gave an application deadline of 16 May 2025 at 4:30pm, with information sessions in March 2025. Ask for the current dates rather than reading them.

Eligibility screen

• ✓A food pantry or soup kitchen is squarely inside the named eligible categories.
• ⚠Long Island Cares states applicants need “501C3 status, at least 6 months proof of operation, all required permits… and a board of directors.” The six-month operating history is the screen a brand-new organization fails. Re-read 9 September 2026 and unchanged.
• ●Joining the food bank and qualifying for HPNAP are two different gates, and a new organization should not read the six-month rule as closing both. Long Island Cares’ own Join the Network page asks that a member agency “has been in operation for a period of at least three (3) months,” hold 501(c)(3) status, provide food free to all clients and not operate out of a personal residence. So a pantry can join the network at three months and reach HPNAP eligibility at six. Read 8 September 2026.

Typical grant

$15,000–$25,000

Cycles per year

Three

Distributed annually

~$2–3M

Submit to

proposals@licf.org

Why this is your best-odds grant

LICF funds nine areas and Hunger is a standing one. In its own words, “most grants fall into the $15,000 – $25,000 range,” against roughly $2–3 million distributed a year — large enough to matter at your size, small enough that you are not competing with hospital systems. Three cycles a year means a miss costs months, not a year.

Plan the runway honestly: “Grants are made for one year at a time… In most instances, no more than two renewals will be considered.” That is a two-to-three year line, not a permanent one.

Eligibility screen

• ✓Long Island service area is the entire point of this funder.
• ✓Hunger is one of the nine named funding areas.
• ⚠Its own deadline page is two years stale, and it has now been checked on three separate days. On 6–7 September, on 8 September and again on 9 September 2026, the foundation’s For Nonprofits page still listed “Cycle 1 – Friday, January 5, 2024”, “Cycle 2 – Wednesday, April 3, 2024” and “Cycle 3 – Monday, August 5, 2024”. Do not plan against those dates, and do not accept a report that quotes them as current.

Geography

Long Island included

Program officer

Melissa Greenberger

Apply via

Grantseeker portal

Board minimum

4 members

What they actually fund

The Trust maintains Hunger — Long Island as its own dedicated funding area, which is unusual and works in your favour. It aims to reduce or alleviate hunger on Long Island through three things, and your framing should pick one: increasing access to nutritious food for vulnerable populations; connecting people to social services that address the root causes of hunger; and expanding youth participation in free school meal programs.

Eligibility screen

• ✓Grants go to “public charities, or to groups sponsored by one.”
• ⚠Board composition is a hard gate. The Trust requires “a board of directors with at least four members, and no more than one paid board member.” Small pantries fail here on a technicality more often than on programme merit. Check your roster before you write a word.
• ✗General operating support is excluded, and the list is longer than most people expect: no grants for “individuals, or for general operating support, capital and building campaigns, endowments, equipment, deficit financing, conferences and meetings, or religious purposes.” Your ask has to be a defined project, not the lights and the rent.

Structure

Discrete rounds via RFP

Last round

Round 2 (RFP 0325)

That deadline

29 Feb 2024, closed

Round 3

None published

Worth watching, not worth writing

The programme connects New York farm products to food relief organizations and the dollars have been real. But it runs in discrete rounds through RFPs rather than continuously, and the most recent round I could find is Round 2, whose application deadline was 29 February 2024 at 3:00 pm and is closed. No Round 3 was published anywhere I could reach on 6–7 September 2026.

Writing a proposal into a closed round is one of the commonest ways a small organization loses a month. This one stays in the watch column until a live RFP number exists.

Grant size

$55,000 / year

Duration

3 to 5 years

2026 cycle

One, due 2 March

Verdict

Ineligible twice over

Why this is in the report at all

Because it is the most attractive result you will find on your own. “$55,000 per year, for 3 to 5 years” is transformational money for an organization under $1M, the deadline is public, and the application is open to anyone who reads the page carelessly. Every instinct says apply.

Eligibility screen

• ✗Applicants must “be based in NYC.” Nassau and Suffolk are not New York City. This alone ends it.
• ✗“Direct services” are named as something the foundation will not fund. A pantry that distributes food is doing direct service.
• ✗Applicants must use “community organizing & grassroots advocacy as primary strategies.”
• ⚠For completeness: 2026 has “only 1 grant cycle, with applications due March 2” — a date that has already passed as of this report.