SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY — The Sullivan County Legislature heard two very different pictures of the county during meetings on Thursday, August 7. 

Martin Colavito, speaking as an organizer with Sullivan Fresh Community Cupboard, spoke of the group’s efforts to feed the Sullivan County community and the need he sees as he goes about that work. Marc Baez, president and CEO with the Sullivan County Partnership for Economic Development, responded by talking about the rising incomes in the county and the economic development projects he’s seen through his work with the partnership. 

Keeping the county fed

Colavito updated the legislature on the work being done by the Sullivan Fresh Community Cupboard, a program out of Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE). 

Sullivan Fresh delivers groceries to people in need, providing them with the raw materials for two meals a day. The cupboard also has a physical pantry location at CCE. 

Sullivan Fresh made over 12,000 deliveries last year, said Colavito. This year, the demand for food has only grown. Colavito said Sullivan Fresh is making 700 deliveries a week on its regular routes—not including emergency calls for food, which are up 100 percent from three months ago, at a rate of two per day, he said. 

“I’m finding more and more people calling me, breaking down on the phone, saying they don’t want to tell their kid they can’t put food in their lunch box tomorrow,” he said. 

Colavito said that while the pantry is working well for the moment, he had concerns about being able to continue its work into next year, due to increased demand and strained resources. 

Furthering economic growth

“Nonwithstanding what we heard at that last meeting—we understand that these problems are serious, and we always take those things seriously—but there is another side of that coin,” said Baez. “The other side of the coin is that there are some good things happening here in Sullivan County.”

The county has made great progress from its position 10 or 15 years ago, said Baez. Previously, the county consistently saw double digit unemployment, with unemployment rates soaring in the winter months; now, the county consistently maintains single digit unemployment, with June’s unemployment rate coming in at 2.9 percent. Median household income rose 31 percent from 2011 to 2023, he said. 

Baez attributed much of the county’s growth to good decisions made by its leadership. While the legislature often gets criticized—maybe fairly, maybe unfairly, he said—“You have made some policy decisions over the years that are structurally going to put us in a position to be much better off down the road than we are today.”

And, Baez said, the future looks bright for extended growth. With several large economic development projects in the works, and with the foundational work going on to improve the county’s infrastructure, its economy is poised for a “takeoff point,” where investment demand reaches a point where it feeds on itself and growth is assured. 

In addition, there are thousands—potentially over 10,000—of units of housing in active development along the Route 17 corridor in Sullivan and Orange counties, Baez estimated.