Trump’s Big Cuts Are Going to Overwhelm Food Banks With Hungry People

“Food shelves would have to have the capacity to welcome twice the volume of meals through their doors, and their shelves, and their refrigerators and coolers, and so it is a logistical challenge, and one that, quite frankly, we’re not designed for,” said Moberg. “We don’t have the infrastructure to keep up with the degree of billions of meals lost through SNAP.”

In times of economic hardship, struggling families often turn to charitable organizations to supplement any federal benefits they may also receive. The number of American households that reported visiting a food pantry more than doubled between 2001 and 2014, in large part due to the increase in food insecurity associated with the Great Recession. Amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, food banks reported a 55 percent increase in demand for assistance, according to a report by Feeding America. As food insecurity has remained high, so has the need for help, with Feeding America reporting that 50 million people received charitable food assistance in 2023. The end of pandemic-era programs to increase benefits—such as the SNAP emergency allotments—also placed a greater strain on food banks and pantries.

Similar to previous times of struggle, food banks are now bracing for cuts to SNAP to lead to increased reliance on charitable assistance. These concerns are exacerbated by cuts already implemented by the Trump administration, including the Agriculture Department freezing $1 billion in funding for food banks and schools to purchase food and suspending a program that helps community hunger relief organizations purchase from local producers. Without additional funding, hunger organizations are going to find it difficult to match the need, said Greene.

“People say, ‘Oh, well, there’s going to be more people you serve.’ Well, there are, but they’re each going to get less,” he said. “This is what we’ve been given; this is what we can do. And it’s heartbreaking when we just see suffering going on, but it doesn’t enable us to do more.”