Downtown Daily Bread’s food pantry. July 2024.
“We’ve had the hallway and lobby filled with people waiting. I don’t know how much fuller it can be.”
Executive Director of the Harrisburg Area Food Pantry Deidre Lenker said their small pantry in the Camp Curtin YMCA is already pushed to its limits, and worries about what the coming weeks will hold.
As the federal government shutdown is slated to cause the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to run out of money by Nov. 1, millions of people are expected to lose their benefits. In Dauphin County, 51,629 people received SNAP assistance in September, according to the commonwealth.
Local food banks and pantries, like Lenker’s in Harrisburg, are bracing for the impact as best as they can, even as many are already stretched thin due to federal funding cuts earlier this year and demand that continues to rise.
“We are already experiencing increased requests for food,” Lenker said. “We’re pushing our volunteers to capacity.”
What used to be an average of 60 clients served at the pantry each day became more like 80 in recent months, a record high. Come November, Lenker expects the number to climb again.
“I think we’ll just keep busting through those records,” she said.
The Central PA Food Bank provides shipments to area organizations like the Harrisburg Area Food Pantry, and has already begun ramping up its inventory, according to Shila Ulrich, executive director.
However, the resources that the food bank provides, even when it’s not stretched thin, aren’t close to what SNAP provides area residents. According to Ulrich, for every one meal that the food bank delivers, SNAP provides nine.
And while they’re going to do all they can to meet the need and encourage donations, Ulrich doesn’t have a clear picture of how the shutdown will really impact them yet.
What she does know is that the U.S. already faces a hunger crisis, and that the food bank has taken several hits this year already.
Triple Whammy
Ulrich shared how the food bank has lost tens of thousands of pounds of food because of federal cuts to programs like the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program, which pays local farmers to supply fresh food to food banks. The U.S. Department of Agriculture also cancelled 27 truckloads of food that the bank was set to receive so far this year.
Additionally, the state budget impasse has held up programs like the State Food Purchase Program, which provides grants to help food banks purchase food, the Emergency Food Assistance Program and others.
Add on top of that an expected demand surge as SNAP funds lapse, and organizations are left guessing what’s coming next.
“This is a triple whammy for us,” Ulrich said.
A little over a year ago, Downtown Daily Bread on South Street in Harrisburg opened a food pantry, adding to its services for unhoused and food-insecure individuals. The nonprofit is still working to get the word out about the pantry, but expects to see more people visiting soon.
“I think plenty of folks who don’t know we have a pantry are going to find out,” Executive Director Kristen Herman said.
Downtown Daily Bread currently offers pantry assistance from Monday through Wednesday, but plans to expand hours in the coming weeks.
Herman worries about the “domino effect” that the SNAP pause will have on their clients.
“They’re going to have to choose between eating and paying bills,” she said. “It will impact their ability to move toward independence.”
Midwest Food Bank Executive Director Sarah Brennan said that while some people may believe food insecurity only affects the most impoverished and unhoused residents, in reality, many people need the help.
“People who face this are people who you see every day,” she said. “This is going to impact a lot more people than you think.”
In the Harrisburg School District, families have already started asking what to do when SNAP lapses, said Gia Johnson, the district’s liaison for the McKinney-Vento program, which supports unhoused and displaced families.
“I know it’s going to impact a lot of our students,” she said.
The district already provides free breakfast and lunch to all students, as well as 500 weekly “energy packs” with snacks for the weekend, and seasonal “Cocoa Packs” of food. Johnson and school social workers are helping to connect families to local food pantries as much as they can, but in terms of in-house help, officials say their hands are tied at the moment.
The district is still waiting on about $50 million in state funding that is held up by the budget impasse, according to Dr. Marcia Stokes, chief financial officer. And when it comes to the funds that support breakfast and lunch for students, the district is also experiencing a reimbursement delay from the state.
“It’s the perfect storm of no money flowing to programs that people rely on,” Stokes said.
Filling a Gap
Midwest Food Bank is an independent food bank, which means it doesn’t rely on government funds, but on private donors, so federal cuts haven’t hit it like they have hit the Central PA Food Bank.
However, that means more pantries are relying on Midwest Food Bank more to make up for gaps in resources from other suppliers who are lacking funds.
But more demand will mean driving more and further to pick up food, more money needed for purchasing food and more donations needed from farms and grocery stores.
All of the local organizations mentioned could use donations, some looking for monetary and others for food donations.
While local support will help, Ulrich, at the Central PA Food Bank, knows that if the government shutdown continues, it won’t be enough.
“We need lawmakers to understand that’s only good enough for so long,” she said. “That can’t make up for [federal funds].”
Gov. Josh Shapiro released a statement on the issue on Oct. 20, saying that “vital support for Pennsylvania families and children” is being threatened “once again,” following Congress’s vote to cut 310,000 Pennsylvanians off Medicaid and 144,000 off SNAP.
Just two days ago, Shapiro sued the Trump administration, alleging that it unlawfully suspended SNAP, and that billions of dollars in congressionally-appropriated contingency funding could be used to fund SNAP in November.
Federal Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts shared on Thursday that she would likely order the Trump administration to use these emergency funds.
For more information on the Harrisburg Area Food Pantry, visit their website.
To find out more about the Central PA Food Bank, visit their website.Click here for their database of food pantries.
For more on Downtown Daily Bread, visit their website.
To find out more about the Midwest Food Bank, visit their website.
For more information on the Harrisburg School District, visit their website.
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