Even as inflation has decreased and the COVID-19 pandemic declared over, food banks have had to distribute large amounts of food.
“We are seeing more people visiting our pantries than at any time in our history,” said Triada Stampas, president and CEO of Fulfill, a food bank in Neptune, New Jersey.
The 40-year-old organization serves Monmouth and Ocean counties and has a network of 300 agencies and distribution sites, serving over 100,000 people a month.
That’s even more people than the height of the pandemic.
“The skyrocketing costs that people have faced, we just haven’t caught up, and people are still struggling,” Stampas said.
During the holidays, the food bank gave 21,000 turkeys in its service area, the most ever.
And it’s not just about turkeys. It’s also about the fixings and other holiday staples.
Elizabeth Romano, senior director of operations at Food Bank for New York City, said the organization distributed over 100 million pounds of food in the last fiscal year, from July 2023 through June 2024.
“We definitely saw an uptick in the work that we do during COVID,” Romano said, “and we thought that once things reopened we would see lines get shorter, but unfortunately they just continue to get longer.”
When budgets get tight, food is one of the first expenses people cut, often before rent and gas. They’ll purchase cheaper and less healthful food, and then less food.
“That’s where our network comes in,” Romano said. “We’re the resource of last resort. A food pantry, a soup kitchen, a food bank is where a family shows up when all of their resources are exhausted.”
Food bank offerings have changed over Romano’s 20-plus years at the New York organization — more raw produce, fewer sugary beverages and potato chips.
“It’s based around getting someone fresh potatoes versus canned potatoes,” she said. “There’s so many other things you can do with them being fresh, different ways you can cook them.”
USDA is one of the largest suppliers for food banks is USDA, Stampas said. The agency provides surplus American agricultural products to food banks.
In Ephrata, Pennsylvania, Blessings of Hope distributes food to food banks in a 200-mile radius and provides logistics for other nonprofits.
“We receive semi truckloads of food from corporations that want to donate product and make them available to nonprofits,” said David Lapp, the CEO of Blessings of Hope.
The food includes fresh produce, dairy and shelf-stable products. Lapp said the organization distributes over 2 million meals a month, marked growth from its start in 2006.
Its first regular commitment was packing seven boxes a week for a local pastor in 2010.
“We’re up about 20% overall compared to other years,” Lapp said, “I think a lot of that is due to expanding our reach, expanding our footprint.”
With the transition of power from President Joe Biden to President-elect Donald Trump, food banks face uncertainty.
Stampas said the main USDA program food banks rely on is The Emergency Food Assistance Program. The program’s budget is set by the Farm Bill, which is overdue for reauthorization.
During the first Trump administration, USDA also bought up commodities that lost export markets because of the trade war with China.
“Food banks got a lot of pork,” Stampas said.
With Trump returning to power, some people are concerned that food bank clients will stay away because they fear being observed or deported by immigration officials.
During a Dec. 5 webinar, New Jersey Secretary of Agriculture Ed Wengryn said customers may not come back in fear of being observed to set up for a future raid.
Stampas said she hadn’t heard of any such incidents in their area, but her food bank is keeping tabs.
“We have to pay attention once they come in to see what’s going on,” Romano said. “We have a team paying close attention to that.”
A recent issue with her car put things into perspective for Stampas. As estimated by the American Farm Bureau Federation, the cost of a Thanksgiving meal for about 10 people was $58 this year. Her repair cost $700.
“That one incident, that’s 12 Thanksgiving meals,” she said. “A lot of times, folks are one emergency away from being in crisis.”
