ALBANY — Six Capital Region food banks will split $5.8 million in state funding, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday.

The food banks are required to devote a portion of the funding to healthier foods "identified as helpful in the prevention of chronic diseases," according to a press release.

The money is part of a $36.5 million push to combat hunger in New York, where many food banks have been struggling to keep up with demands for services due to stagnant wages and unemployment, among other issues.

One of the organizations that received funding, the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, has been trying to finance a $2 million expansion at their 62,000-square-foot Colonie facility to handle the 36 million pounds of food it handles each year, a 14 million increase since the 2008 recession.

Roughly one in eight New Yorkers have received food from a local pantry or meals program, according to Siena College, and 17 percent use government programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That number is much higher among poorer New Yorkers, with 28 percent who earn less than $50,000 annually having used food banks, and 40 percent relying on some form of government assistance.

A 2016 report from Feeding America found 14 percent of New Yorkers do not have access to adequate food resources. The group also estimates there are about 82,000 food-insecure people in the Capital Region.

Nationally, about 43.6 million people — or 7 percent of all Americans — use food stamps under SNAP, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a number that has grown in the last two decades as eligibility requirements were broadened under President George W. Bush, and as the great recession left more people unemployed.

The organizations receiving funding are: Capital Roots; the Good Bank Association of New York State; the Regional Foodbank of Northeastern New York; Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region; The Commission on Economic Opportunity for the Greater Capital Region; Schenectady Inner City Ministry; and Comfort Food of Washington County.