Funding cuts threaten to deepen hunger crisis as rising costs send more
families to food banks
[May 01, 2025]
By JAMES POLLARD
NEW YORK (AP) — The Campaign Against Hunger was already struggling to
feed thousands of families a week when the Trump administration pulled
more than $1.3 million in grants.
Demand has only increased at the New York nonprofit since the city
emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic insecurity.
In a first for the pantry, however, it isn't just the jobless lining up
for its fresh produce and meats. It's working people, too.
Food banks typically see the most need during periods of high
unemployment and yet the U.S. is facing down a hunger crisis during a
relatively resilient labor market. The latest U.S. Department of
Agriculture research showed there were one million more food insecure
households in 2023 than 2022.
Now, income stagnation and rising living costs are sending wage earners
to food banks across the country — all as the federal government shuts
off funding streams that provide millions with healthier, harder-to-get
groceries. The squeeze comes as Republicans discuss budget plans that
hunger relief groups fear will deepen the crisis by slashing food stamp
spending.
“We were already in a bad state. But now we have been plunged head down
into a crisis that should never have been,” said Melony Samuels,
executive director of The Campaign Against Hunger. “If major cuts like
these continue, I would imagine that our doors will close.”
Higher food costs mean longer lines
Funding cuts began threatening food availability in March.
The USDA halted $500 million of expected food deliveries and cut another
$1 billion for hunger relief programs supporting local producers. The
Department of Homeland Security also rescinded Federal Emergency
Management Agency grants for local governments and nonprofits —
including The Campaign Against Hunger — to shelter and feed newly
arrived noncitizen migrants after their release.
“Secretary Noem has directed FEMA to implement additional controls to
ensure that all grant money going out is consistent with law and does
not go to fraud, waste or abuse, as in the past,” DHS Assistant
Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Samuels said her nonprofit is limiting normally bimonthly food
distributions to once a month due to the lost funds, which are being
withheld amid what she called “baseless allegations" from DHS that the
nonprofit might have broken laws against transporting undocumented
migrants.
That means fewer nutritious options for the dozens of people — some
holding babies, many pushing carts — who recently waited to shop inside
The Campaign Against Hunger's Brooklyn mock-store on an overcast weekday
in April.
Longtime Brooklyn resident Kim Dennis has noticed the uptick in need. On
top of her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the
65-year-old retiree visits The Campaign Against Hunger twice each month
for groceries like potatoes and pork chops that are more difficult to
find at other food banks often filled with canned goods.
“The lines are getting a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot," Dennis said,
partially due to recent immigration waves. “Everything is going up and a
lot of us cannot afford."
Over half of responding food banks told Feeding America they served more
neighbors this February than the same month last year.
Christiana Santamaria said she visits a local food bank in Alameda,
California each week to feed herself, her husband and their daughter.
They struggle to cover food costs, internet bills and car payments with
a monthly household income of nearly $3,000.
“I mean, my husband, he works full-time. He has a quote-unquote ‘good
job.’ But I mean, it’s the military. And if even the military can’t
afford things, that’s sad," she said.
Food banks face deficits
The country's largest hunger-relief network is also feeling the strain.
Feeding America consists of more than 200 member food banks. Their
assistance is often easier to obtain than government benefits such as
SNAP that some advocates say require burdensome applications. Many
families put dinner on the table through a combination of the two — a
strategy food bank leaders say could be upended if Republican lawmakers
cut SNAP allotments or expand work requirements.
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The Campaign Against Hunger Executive Director Melony Samuels sits
in her office in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April
15, 2025. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
Houston Food Bank CEO Brian Greene expects his organization, which
operates the largest distribution among Feeding America partners, to
lose somewhere around $4 million this year.
The government pullbacks amp up that pressure. If the cuts stay,
Greene said, the projected losses include $3 million for food
storage and distribution, $7 million supporting local farmers and
producers, and 40 tractor trailer loads a month carrying key produce
and protein.
Greene is trying to make up the difference through donations. But
he's realistic. Surveys consistently place American philanthropy
around 2% of GDP and social services receive just a sliver of that.
Even if charitable contributions spiked, he said, they couldn't
replace federal support.
That makes SNAP availability even more critical to alleviating
hunger. Cutting the program by 11%, he said, would be the equivalent
of wiping out every food bank in the United States.
Less predictability and variety
Food purchases are funded through the Farm Bill. Trump's trade war
has also generated more money for USDA to buy food commodities under
a 1935 program that dedicates tariff collections toward “bonus” food
purchases.
What concerns hunger relief groups, however, is that the suspended
purchases are covered by a different funding pot that allows the
USDA great discretion when responding to economic disruptions. The
first Trump administration put more than $2 billion of those funds
toward The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. However,
USDA is now reviewing $500 million allocated last fall for the
program.
Federal commodities programs provide some of the most reliable
supplies of proteins. Vince Hall, who leads government relations for
Feeding America, said TEFAP-purchased foods account for more than
20% of everything distributed by the entire network. That number
rises in rural communities — where the cost of reaching distant
populations is higher and donated products are less available.
The impact trickles down to smaller pantries that rely on larger
food banks. Mother Hubbard's Cupboard is bracing for about 25% food
reductions from a Feeding America partner in Bloomington, Indiana.
“What we're likely to see then would be a dip in what are really the
nutritional staples that we expect in the pantry,” said Mother
Hubbard’s Cupboard President Megan Betz.
A 2022 study measuring food pantries' value suggests participating
families obtain between $600 and $1000 annually from them. That's
equivalent to a couple months of food for some low-income
households, according to co-author David Just, an applied economics
professor at Cornell University.
The centers helped cushion families from the pandemic's economic
shocks. But food insecurity started rising as the government rolled
back its pandemic-era assistance.
Need has surpassed the height of COVID-19, according to Alameda
County Community Food Bank Executive Director Reggie Young. The
weight of the Oakland nonprofit's annual food distributions has
doubled its pre-pandemic totals.
Food insecurity nationwide is the highest it's been in about a
decade, according to Just, making it “potentially a really difficult
time to start cutting food assistance through the pantries.”
“This could cause some pretty significant pain,” he said. "And I
don’t know that we’re delivering something more efficient in the
end.”
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Associated Press journalist Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed
to this report.
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