Kit Geary/ Summit Daily News
With food insecurity persisting and federal benefits rolling back, local food pantries report they are getting hit with record numbers of visitors. Officials at Summit County’s food pantries say numbers remain high and, for some, they continue to climb. Some say they are in desperate need of resources.
As food insecurity skyrocketed in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government expanded benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which allowed more families to access food assistance. During this time, food banks still had their hands full, but expanded SNAP benefits provided a little relief after a they experienced a massive spike of demand early in the pandemic.
Those benefits dropped back down to pre-pandemic levels in March, but the levels of food insecurity have remained the same, if not worse.
The Family & Intercultural Resource Center recorded 371 visits on Sept. 12 — a single-day record for the nonprofit.
The center reports that numbers of those served have only gone up since the start of the pandemic. While the center had 647 visits in September 2020, it had 2,448 visits in September 2023. Those numbers hold for other months as well with 645 visits in August 2020 and 2,892 visits in August 2023.
The organization doled out nearly $5.3 million in its 2023 fiscal year alone, which ended in October.
“We’re in a dire situation, and folks cannot afford their housing,” executive director Brianne Snow said.
She describes a situation where paying for housing, something that needs to be paid for no matter what, is eating people’s paychecks up. After housing runs people’s bank accounts nearly dry, they have little to no money left for food.
“Food insecurity is a real issue in our community with so much wealth and power, and it’s just incredibly sad to watch,” Snow said.
Snow turned in a $300,000 deficit when turning in her budget for the year, something she has not seen in her 18 years with the center.
Another local food pantry is also serving people in record numbers. The organization is reporting a 30% overall increase of people who have been served this year compared to 2022.
Janice Wagner, who works with the food pantry at Father Dyer Methodist Church, noted the organization saw a major jump in numbers last year. The organization reports serving a total of 6,869 people in 2021 and 9,148 in 2022. Wagner noted the organization does not have concrete numbers yet for 2023, though she doesn’t expect them to show much of an increase, if any.
She believes there’s a few different reasons for this uptick, but Father Dyer has one factor that is probably different from other local food pantries.
Father Dyer added someone to their team in 2020 that allowed them to help more Spanish-speaking families than ever before: Yerania Reynoso. Reynoso describes herself as not quite bilingual but at least “1.5 lingual” — she is fluent in Spanish and pretty fluent in English.
Hailing from Mexico, Reynoso also is involved with another local nonprofit that is specifically for immigrants: Mountain Dreamers.
Reynoso explained that being at Mountain Dreamers has allowed her to be better able to alert more families of Father Dyer’s food pantry and services.
An opportunity for the community to step in
With an uptick in service all the food pantries expressed that there is an extreme need to get support from the community.
Snow noted that, right now, Family & Intercultural Resource Center is in need of monetary donations.
“People can help by donating,” Snow said. “I think that, because we can turn $20 into $200, your money goes a lot further, when it comes to leveraging those limited resources.”
Additionally, many of the center’s employees and volunteers can longer afford to live in Summit County, and the organization is extremely short staffed. She said the organization really needs volunteers to help fill in its staffing gaps right now.
Diane Calvin of Cafe Food Rescue, another local food pantry, sang a similar tune, noting volunteers were desperately needed at the nonprofit.
Wagner said volunteers are needed for the Father Dyer food pantry, but there is a particular need for volunteers to help with the church’s free community dinners.