By Jay Worrall
President, Helping Harvest
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity has continued to increase in the U.S., reaching levels that have not been seen in decades.
Nearly 50 million people experience hunger across the country, including 14 million children.
Despite this, funding cuts are being implemented at the federal level, and these will severely compromise the effectiveness of nutrition programs aimed at increasing food security for the Americans most in need.
Berks and Schuylkill counties alone are home to more than 72,000 adults and children living below the poverty line, plus many more who live above the poverty line but are still food insecure. At Helping Harvest, the food bank that serves these two counties, we have seen a drastic increase in demand for access to healthy food.
Over a five-year span, the total value of food we distributed in the two counties we serve more than doubled, jumping from $8.7 million in 2019 to $20.5 million in 2024.
Several of the programs which have already had funding cuts, or are being targeted for extensive cuts include:
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, provides funding to low-income families to help them purchase food with their family’s needs in mind
• Local Food Purchase Assistance program, or LFPA, provides funding to help food banks purchase locally grown and produced foods
• Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP, distributes nutritious food to food banks and other community organizations at no cost
With rising grocery prices, more and more families are dependent on food banks to help them put food on the table. Cuts to SNAP and other food assistance programs are already making this problem substantially worse.
In LFPA funding and TEFAP food alone, Helping Harvest stands to lose around $3 million worth of federally supported food per year. In 2024, we distributed around $20 million worth of food. That means that we could have 15% less food to give to Berks and Schuylkill families — during a time when that food is needed as much as ever.
While there is some uncertainty about exactly how some of these cuts will affect the communities that we serve, it is clear that our neighbors experiencing food insecurity will have fewer federally funded options to help them feed their families, and food banks like ours will have substantially less food to give them.
So, how can area residents help fill the gaps that these federal funding cuts will create for food banks and our community partners?
If ensuring that children and adults in our region have enough nutritious food to fill their bellies is something you are passionate about, we invite you to join us and support neighbors in need however you are able: contributing financially, donating food, giving of your time through volunteering or contacting your elected officials to stress the importance of restoring this funding.
And if you are someone who worries about putting nutritious food on your own family’s table, please know that Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank is here — and will remain here — to help you in any way we can.
Find out more about what we do at helpingharvest.org.
Source: Berkshire mont
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