PTAs in Arlington have been getting creative to meet the needs of students in Arlington Public Schools who are experiencing food insecurity.
There’s apple sauce and pasta in a tiny cabinet on the side of Hoffman-Boston Elementary in Arlington, Virginia.
The food cabinet remains unlocked 24/7 and is available to students, with the goal of making sure no child goes hungry.
The school’s PTA is also working with a food rescue group, with the goal of procuring leftover items from bakeries or farmers’ markets.
PTAs and parent teacher student organizations across Arlington have long considered ways to help students who might be experiencing food insecurity. But in recent months, in the aftermath of the government shutdown and uncertainty surrounding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, they’ve stepped in to address the increased need.
“What we found is that schools were coming to PTAs, realizing there’s a lot more need right now,” said Claire Noakes, president of the Arlington County Council of PTAs. “It’s really increased, and so PTAs have tried to almost be a triage in the situation, to rapidly respond in creative ways.”
The responses have varied, but Noakes said at least 20 PTAs and parent teacher student organizations have stepped in to help.
Since November, Long Branch Elementary’s PTA has been giving food bags to families in need. It has also partnered with Troy’s Kitchen to connect families with hot meals for the weekend.
Discovery Elementary’s PTA has organized a gift card drive to assist families. And Claremont Elementary’s PTA has prioritized covering meals during school breaks.
“Many of our PTAs have been doing food distribution for years,” Noakes said. “It’s just part of understanding that there is a large and unmet need. Because of grocery prices, because of uncertainty with SNAP benefits, what we saw is there was just such a broad-based need more recently. Within the last month or so, people have been turning up the dial quite high.”
In some cases, that’s meant requesting donations, working canned foods drives, collecting donated gift cards and collaborating with school social workers. The groups also work alongside community organizations, such as the Capital Area Food Bank, too.
“The impact right now is triage,” Noakes said. “It’s just to try to address the immediate needs.”
Before the pandemic, Noakes said Arlington Public Schools distributed what she described as “student-friendly food” to kids. But the program paused during COVID closures, Noakes said, “and it didn’t really restart.”
Noakes said many distribution sites are at or near schools, so it’s easy for kids and their families to access.
There’s also an emphasis on “student-friendly food,” which she described as “food that even young children can eat and consume and prepare without much work. You could maybe have a single-serving item, mac and cheese, you pour some hot water, you microwave it, a young child can prepare and get food in their stomachs.”
Community members can help address student hunger and food insecurity by volunteering with or donating to a PTA, Noakes said.
“Reach out to the elected officials and to the superintendent and let them know that child hunger is a really critical issue to them, and that more needs to be done,” Noakes said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
The funding is to support Long Island Cares’ Nassau County food pantries, supplying toiletries and household supplies. It will also support the organization’s Veterans Project with food, toiletries and household supplies.
“Every year the Dejana Foundation steps up in the fight to end food insecurity here on Long Island,” Michael Haynes, vice president of government relations, advocacy and social policy at Long Island Cares, said.
This year the need for support is especially meaningful as experts say costs are rising, and people are struggling to make ends meet.
“We are so grateful for their most recent gift of $100,000, which equips Long Island Cares with the expanded capacity needed to keep pace with a Long Island still recovering from the increased hunger associated with the recent federal government shutdown,” Haynes said.
For the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation, the support is all about neighbor helping neighbors on Long Island.
“These grants embody the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation’s spirit of giving but also represent a call to action for both individuals and other philanthropic organizations to give what they can to address the very real problem of food insecurity in our local community. This is not a faraway need—it’s right in our own backyard,” Valerie Mallon, program director at the Peter & Jeri Dejana Foundation, said.
“Our community is strongest when we come together to feed, support, and uplift those who need it most,” Mallon added. “We have great confidence in these three organizations to use these funds to continue and expand their positive impact in our community.”
The donation “will make a big difference in helping us feed our neighbors facing food insecurity. We are grateful for the Foundation’s support because it will touch the lives of many Long Islanders. This is a great milestone in our work to ensure food access for Long Islanders in need,” John Probert, grants specialist of Long Island Cares, said.
More than 313,800 Long Islanders are food insecure, with an estimated 71,500 of them children, according to the most recent data from Long Island Cares.
The PSEG Foundation is donating $100,000 to Island Harvest Food Bank to support efforts to combat food insecurity.
The donation is part of an initiative to provide $1.5 million in grants to more than 25 community organizations on Long Island and in New Jersey that provide critical assistance to households facing economic hardship.
“PSEG Long Island is proud to have partnered with Island Harvest for years to collect, sort and distribute meals to our neighbors suffering from food insecurity – one of many key partnerships that reflect our commitment to giving back to the communities where we live and work,” David Lyons, interim president and cheif operating officer of PSEG Long Island, said in a news release about the grant.
The funding comes at a time when food banks on Long Island report up to a 30 percent increase in food insecurity and demand for assistance, with some people just steps away from financial hardship especially when facing unplanned expenses.
The PSEG Foundation investment aims to strengthen the capacity of nonprofits to maintain essential services and to support food banks, while promoting the long-term impact of these organizations at both the state and community levels.
“We have seen firsthand the good work Island Harvest has done, and we are thrilled that the PSEG Foundation is ensuring that even more good can be done through this $100,000 grant,” Lyons said.
PSEG Long Island and the PSEG Foundation look to foster partnerships with “organizations that understand local needs,” Calvin Ledford Jr., president, PSEG Foundation and director of Corporate Social Responsibility at PSEG, said in the news release.
“During times of economic challenges and hardship, these collaborations allow us to deliver meaningful solutions that directly benefit families,” he said.
Island Harvest is a longtime community partner of PSEG Long Island.
“On behalf of the 240,000 people we serve who face food insecurity and uncertainty of when their next meal will come, we are incredibly grateful to direct the PSEG Foundation grant to our Hunger Relief Action Fund” Randi Shubin Dresner, president and CEO of Island Harvest.
“The strong, long-term partnership we have with PSEG Long Island and the PSEG Foundation continues to make a positive impact on the lives of Long Islanders,” she added. “PSEG’s commitment to improving the quality of life and providing critical resources for our neighbors in need, especially during these difficult times, is truly commendable and heartwarming.”
A Montgomery Co. nonprofit says it’s getting dozens of daily calls from families who need extra help getting food. This weekend, the group is hoping to meet the need with Thanksgiving meals for 30,000 families.
A Montgomery County nonprofit says it’s getting dozens of calls every day from families who need a little extra help getting food on the dinner table. This weekend, So What Else is hoping to meet the need with Thanksgiving meals for 30,000 families.
It’s just some of the many giveaways happening around the region leading into Thanksgiving next week.
“We’re receiving 40 to 50 new emergency inquiries a day, and so we’re trying to find ways to just be able to service as much as possible through this hunger crisis,” said Dave Silbert, executive director of So What Else, which his holding its giveaways at its headquarters in the Randolph Hills Shopping Center.
“We’re navigating sort of a large-scale, long-term hunger crisis,” he added.
In recent days, Silbert said, a Montgomery County school reached out after their food pantry vendor couldn’t help.
“Our kids are really struggling, so we’re just receiving those kinds of messages every day,” he said.
That’s why they’re helping out as much as they’re able to, but also hoping anyone else who is able to help will do so.
“If you don’t want to go grocery shopping and add a few more items to your cart and donate them toward us, you can certainly go on our website,” said May Nash, deputy director at So What Else. “It’s only $24 to donate to a family of four for a Thanksgiving meal. I think that is a pretty reasonable price that we’re able to get a full meal for families.”
“I think people forget that this is a very wealthy area, so they don’t realize that there are people that are still food insecure,” she added.
So What Else will be distributing meals on Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 4924 Wyaconda Road in North Bethesda.
Other distribution events happening in Maryland include:
Saturday, Nov. 22:
8:30 a.m.: Islamic Relief USA, along with ALIVE, will be distributing hundreds of turkeys to underserved populations, while supplies last.
9 a.m.: Prince George’s County Council members Calvin Hawkins and Shayla Adams-Stafford with the First Baptist Church of Highland Park at 6801 Sheriff Road in Landover.
9 a.m.: Prince George’s County Council Vice Chair Krystal Oriadha is hosting a free food giveaway on Saturday at Bishop McNamara High School at 6800 Marlboro Pike in Forestville, and run while supplies last. A free turkey and other Thanksgiving staples will be distributed to more than 1,000 families on a first-come, first-served basis.
11 a.m.: Prince George’s Council member Wanika Fisher, in partnership with the Prince George’s County Police District I, will host a giveaway for Prince George’s County residents. Participants must register ahead of time at the Prince George’s County Police Department on 5000 Rhode Island Ave.
Sunday, Nov. 23:
So What Else will be distributing meals on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 4924 Wyaconda Road in North Bethesda.
2 p.m.: Interfaith Coalition of Bowie will be distributing food at the Bowie Community Center at 3209 Stonybrook Drive.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
The federal government shutdown is over, and SNAP benefits are back for the more than 400,000 Minnesotans who rely on them – but Twin Cities food shelves say the impact on them is far from over.
In Eagan, The Open Door Food Shelf is preparing to provide emergency help Saturday to nearly 500 households. The additional service began Nov. 1 when SNAP funding paused, but will continue each Saturday through the month of November.
“There is not enough support for people in our community that need it,” said The Open Door Executive Director Jason Viana. “The shutdown has changed things in a similar way to how the pandemic changed things.”
Viana says since the shutdown, appointment wait times have increased by an additional week-and-a-half, with families now waiting 6 ½ weeks to access services. Thanks to an outpouring of donations, The Open Door can provide “go bags” of food to anyone who stops in, but the increase in appointment time is seen as a negative lasting impact of the government shutdown.
“This current situation – this crisis that was created, it seems to have ended. I would more likely say it’s been paused,” Viana said. “We need the government to make a long-term funding agreement to remove the uncertainty. I think what a lot of our families are feeling is that people don’t care.”
At SACA Food Shelf in Anoka County, leaders are wondering how they’ll meet the increased need. By October, they’d already had nearly 5,000 more visits – all with less food to give away. Year over year, they’ve been able to give nearly 200,000 fewer pounds of food.
“There’s so many people coming in – people we haven’t seen for years,” said SACA Co-Director Dave Rudolph. “We have a finite amount of food – we just have to make sure that we have enough for everybody.”
Both food shelves say a long-term federal plan to address hunger is needed.
“It’s all needed – it really helps. People have stepped up, community has stepped up, but we need more,” Rudolph said.
The share of Americans reporting trouble affording food is rising this year amid persistently high grocery costs, according to a recent report from Purdue University.
Roughly 14% of U.S. households reported food insecurity on average between January and October, up from 12.5% in 2024, according to the latest data from Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability.
While the prevalence of food insecurity around the U.S. fluctuates month to month, the overall rate had been declining since 2022, when an average of 15.4% of households were food insecure as inflation hit 40-year highs following the pandemic.
Although the pace of inflation has declined since 2022, food insecurity is likely rising because food prices remain far above pre-pandemic levels, according to Poonam Gupta, a research associate at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C.
“Even though inflation slowed a lot this year, we’re nowhere near the amount that we were spending on food even just a couple of years ago,” she said.
Gupta also said more Americans could struggle to put food on the table in 2026, with an estimated 2.4 million SNAP recipients potentially losing benefits due to new work requirements in the Republican-backed “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill signed into law in July by President Trump.
The Purdue researchers define food insecurity as some members of a household at times not being able to afford a balanced meal, as well as occasionally having to skip a meal or eating less for financial reasons.
Purdue’s survey has become one of the few remaining national measures of food insecurity, since the U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled its annual Household Food Security survey in September, which had been conducted since 2001.
In scrapping the USDA assessment of food insecurity, the Trump administration said in September that the survey was “redundant, costly, politicized and extraneous.”
But researchers told CBS News that the government data was widely respected. Craig Gundersen, a Baylor University economics professor who has studied food insecurity for 30 years, called the USDA survey the “gold standard measure.”
Joseph Balagtas, director of Purdue’s Center for Food Demand Analysis, said the school surveys about 1,200 adults a month, compared to 30,000 people surveyed yearly by the USDA.
Even so, he said, Purdue’s findings have generally mirrored federal food security data because participants are asked identical questions and because they use statistical methods to ensure their data is representative of the general population.
A strange scene unfolded at the Adams/Vermont farmers market near USC last week.
The pomegranates, squash and apples were in season, pink guavas were so ripe you could smell their heady scent from a distance, and nutrient-packed yams were ready for the holidays.
But with federal funding in limbo for the 1.5 million people in Los Angeles County who depend on food aid from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — or SNAP — the church parking lot hosting the market was largely devoid of customers.
Even though the market accepts payments through CalFresh, the state’s SNAP program, hardly anyone was lined up when gates opened. Vendors mostly idled alone at their produce stands.
A line of cars stretches more than a mile as people wait to receive a box of free food provided by the L.A. Food Bank in the City of Industry on Wednesday.
“So far we’re doing 50% of what we’d normally do — or less,” said Michael Bach, who works with Hunger Action, a food-relief nonprofit that partners with farmers markets across the greater L.A. area, offering “Market Match” deals to customers paying with CalFresh debit cards.
The deal allows shoppers to buy up to $30 worth of fruit produce for only $15. Skimming a ledger on her table, Bach’s colleague Estrellita Echor noted that only a handful of shoppers had taken advantage of the offer.
All week at farmers markets where workers were stationed, the absence was just as glaring, she said. “I was at Pomona on Saturday — we only had six transactions the whole day,” she said. “Zero at La Mirada.”
CalFresh customers looking to double their money on purchases were largely missing at the downtown L.A. market the next day, Echor said.
A volunteer loads up a box of free food for a family at a drive-through food distribution site in the City of Industry.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“This program usually pulls in lots of people, but they are either holding on to what little they have left or they just don’t have anything on their cards,” she said.
The disruption in aid comes as a result of the Trump administration’s decision to deliver only partial SNAP payments to states during the ongoing federal government shutdown, skirting court order to restart funds for November. On Friday night, Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson temporarily blocked the order pending a ruling on the matter by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A study published by her team last year found that 25% of residents in L.A. County — or about 832,000 people — experienced food insecurity, and that among low-income residents, the rate was even higher, 41%. The researchers also found that 29% of county residents experienced nutrition insecurity, meaning they lacked options for getting healthy, nutritious food.
Those figures marked a slight improvement compared to data from 2023, when the end of pandemic-era boosts to state, county and nonprofit aid programs — combined with rising inflation — caused hunger rates to spike just as they did at the start of the pandemic in 2020, de la Haye said.
“That was a big wake-up call — we had 1 in 3 folks in 2020 be food insecure,” de la Haye said. “We had huge lines at food pantries.”
But while the USC study shows the immediate delivery of food assistance through government programs and nonprofits quickly can cut food insecurity rates in an emergency, the researchers discovered many vulnerable Angelenos are not participating in food assistance programs.
Despite the county making strides to enroll more eligible families over the last decade, de la Haye said, only 29% of food insecure households in L.A. County were enrolled in CalFresh, and just 9% in WIC, the federal nutrition program for women, infants and children.
De la Haye said participants in her focus groups shared a mix of reasons why they didn’t enroll: Many didn’t know they qualified, while others said they felt too ashamed to apply for aid, were intimidated by the paperwork involved or feared disclosing their immigration status. Some said they didn’t apply because they earned slightly more than the cutoff amounts for eligibility.
Even many of those those receiving aid struggled: 39% of CalFresh recipients were found to lack an affordable source for food and 45% faced nutrition insecurity.
De la Haye said hunger and problems accessing healthy food have serious short- and long-term health effects — contributing to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes and obesity, as well greater levels of stress, anxiety and depression in adults and children. What’s more, she said, when people feel unsure about their finances, highly perishable items such as fresh, healthy food are often the first things sacrificed because they can be more expensive.
The USC study also revealed stark racial disparities: 31% of Black residents and 32% of Latinos experienced food insecurity, compared to 11% of white residents and 14% of Asians.
De la Haye said her team is analyzing data from this year they will publish in December. That analysis will look at investments L.A. County has made in food system over the last two years, including the allocation of $20 million of federal funding to 80 community organizations working on everything from urban farming to food pantries, and the recent creation of the county’s Office of Food Systems to address challenges to food availability and increase the consumption of healthy foods.
“These things that disrupt people’s ability to get food, including and especially cuts to this key program that is so essential to 1.5 million people in the county — we don’t weather those storms very well,” de la Haye said. “People are just living on the precipice.”
With the increase in food insecurity as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, two Arlington, Virginia, churches joined forces to feed the hungry.
With the increase in food insecurity as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, two Arlington, Virginia, churches joined forces on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, to feed the hungry. (WTOP/Jimmy Alexander)
With the increase in food insecurity as a result of the ongoing government shutdown, two Arlington, Virginia, churches joined forces on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, to feed the hungry. (WTOP/Jimmy Alexander)
With the longest government shutdown in U.S. history stretching to day 39, and on the heels of the Supreme Court granting President Donald Trump’s administration’s emergency order blocking a court order to fully fund SNAP benefits, the need for food has grown.
Government workers have not received a paycheck in a month, inflation is still causing sticker shock in grocery stores, and many in the area had their federal jobs cut earlier in the year, which has caused food insecurity to grow for many in the D.C. area.
Organizers at Saturday’s food pop-up giveaway, which was jointly hosted in Arlington, Virginia, by Mount Olivet United Methodist Church and Walker Chapel United Methodist Church, said they’ve never seen longer lines.
“We had folks who were showing up for the first time because they’ve been furloughed,” said pastor Teer Hardy.
The furloughed government workers stood in a line that wrapped around the parking lot off Glebe Road with families who work multiple jobs to make ends meet.
“It really is a melting pot of our community here in the parking lot,” Hardy said.
The food pop-up has been going for nearly 20 years on the second Saturday of the month in the parking lot at Mount Olivet United Methodist Church.
“It’s like a fifth day of worship for us,” said Greg Hitt, one of the organizers.
Along with the 450 cartons of eggs and cans of tuna that the churches gave out, Hitt said the Capital Area Food Bank provided 720 pounds of jalapeno peppers, 1,000 pounds of green peppers, 2,625 pounds of sweet potatoes, and a 4,000-pound pallet of onions, potatoes and cabbages.
Pastor Sarah Keeling, of Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, said that the need has grown since January, where they would have enough food to give out to 300 families and today, it has jumped to 450.
“We can measure how our economy is doing based off this line,” Keeling said. “People are still willing to come out here in these huge numbers, even when they’re afraid of deportations.”
The food giveaway is set up like a farmers market.
“We really want it to feel it is something you can come with dignity and not feel bad or ashamed,” said Keeling.
Hardy said the second Saturday of the month is not only meaningful to him, but also his children and parishioners.
“Jesus gave us two rules. We love God and we love our neighbor, and then we repeat that over and over and over again,” Hardy said. “This is how we do that.”
Along with donations and volunteers, both Pastors pointed out they need interpreters who speak Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
DENVER — The Trump administration’s decision to partially fund November’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits has left families across Colorado bracing their budgets for tough choices.
The federal government will allocate $4.6 billion from an emergency fund to keep SNAP running — a figure that’s only about half the program’s typical monthly cost. Officials have yet to announce when those funds will be available, adding to the uncertainty for families who rely on the program for food and essentials.
That uncertainty is impacting more than just grocery lists. At a recent diaper distribution event hosted by local nonprofit WeeCycle, hundreds of parents lined up seeking help with basic needs like diapers, wipes, and formula.
Nonprofits distributing food and pet supplies typically join WeeCycle at each event. SNAP benefits do not include non-food items like diapers and wipes.
“Sometimes I don’t know if my kids are going to eat the next day,” said Leianna Rojas, a single mother of four who was recently laid off and now works two part-time jobs at $19 an hour.
Each month, Rojas typically receives about $400 in SNAP benefits.
“It’s only $400 a month, and that doesn’t cover the whole month of my four kids I have,” she said. “I still have to put some out of my pocket.”
Even with two jobs and food assistance, Rojas’ paychecks are stretched to feed herself and her children.
Colin Riley, Denver7
Leianna Rojas relies on SNAP to help feed her four children. After a recent layoff, Rojas needed to take two, part-time jobs to quickly make ends meet. She says the $400 SNAP benefit she received, each month, still didn’t cover her entire grocery bill.
She described relying on rice, beans, and potatoes — meals her mother used to make to stretch a budget. After paying rent, Rojas sometimes has just $20 left.
“So, it was to provide a home for my kids, or to be out and homeless,” she said.
At this WeeCycle distribution, the need was historic for all the wrong reasons.
“The need has surged,” said Lindsey Zaback, the nonprofit’s development director. “This is the first time we’ve ever seen all 500 pre-registration slots filled for this market.”
Zaback said demand has been larger than events held during the pandemic.
“This feels worse. It feels like an even more unprecedented time,” Zaback said. “And it’s because we don’t have the government agencies stepping up in terms of grant funding and ARPA funding and things like that to help sustain nonprofits.”
WeeCycle provides diapers, wipes, and formula to families in need — a lifeline as SNAP funding remains uncertain.
“When SNAP benefits are cut or reduced, that’s a huge portion of a family’s income every month,” Zaback said. “They have to find other ways to find funds for things like diapers.”
Colin Riley, Denver7
Multiple nonprofits make up each distribution event. They look to connect families with food, diapers, baby formula, hygiene products, and pet supplies.
At a recent distribution event, WeeCycle said it served 1,000 children in two hours — a 65% increase compared to the previous year.
“It helps fill in those gaps so you’re not struggling,” said Inna Mitchell, another visitor at the event. “[If] you’re someone who doesn’t get benefits, but you’re someone who needs help.”
Despite the mounting pressure on families and nonprofits, Zaback sees community support as the only viable short-term answer.
“I wish there was a better solution, that there were other entities — including the government — that were able to step up to help sustain nonprofits right now, but it’s not happening,” she said. “We’re just reliant on community members to help get us through these times… to ensure that we can meet the community needs.”
For Rojas, the message to other struggling parents is simple.
“Don’t be scared,” she said. “There’s people out there that want to help, and they’re here with warm hearts and loving to help out. Just don’t be scared. We’re all in the same boat at the end of the day.”
WeeCycle is urgently asking for donations of funds, diapers, wipes and formula to help meet the growing need. You can learn more about how to donate through this link.
If you need assistance, WeeCycle has the following upcoming distribution events:
Wednesday, Nov. 5 — 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church (9200 W. 10th Ave., Lakewood, 80215)
Tuesday, Nov. 11 — 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at La Alma Recreation Center (1325 W. 11th Ave., Denver, 80204) *
Friday, Nov. 14 — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lalo Delgado (3201 W. Arizona Ave., Denver, 80219) *
Monday, Nov. 17 — noon to 1 p.m. at Solid Rock CommUnity Food Pantry (3217 S. Academy Blvd., Colorado Springs, 80916)
Tuesday, Nov. 18 — 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Barnum Recreation Center (360 Hooker St., Denver, 80219) *
Wednesday, Nov. 19 — 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Broomfield Commons Sports Complex (13200 Sheridan Blvd., Broomfield, 80020)
Friday, Nov. 21 — 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Parking Lot H (6000 Victory Way, Commerce City, 80022 )
Saturday, Nov. 22 — 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at North Middle School (12095 E. Montview Blvd., Aurora 80010) *
Tuesday, Nov. 25 — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 72nd Ave RTD Station (3838 E. 72nd Ave., Commerce City, 80022) *
*These markets require a reservation for pickup times. Reservations open 24 hours prior to the market and can be made online.
Coloradans in need of food assistance can check out the following resources:
Those looking for the most up-to-date information should click here.
Denver7 Gives has created a campaign to help Coloradans struggling with food insecurity. Click on the form below and select “Help Fight Food Insecurity“ to donate.
Food shelves across the Twin Cities metro are bracing for an influx of need – as more than 400,000 Minnesotans lose access to SNAP funding Saturday morning.
In Dakota County, The Open Door Pantry is expanding hours. On Saturday, they opened for what they’re calling ‘temporary shutdown support’ – a chance to provide an additional 30,000 pounds of food to families in need.
The additional service was something Open Door Executive Director Jason Viana says was needed – as more than 10,000 Dakota County families rely on SNAP funding.
“Families are facing the uncertainty of knowing in the face of rising grocery prices, they might not be able to afford the trip to the store to give their family what they need for the week,” Viana said. “We’re going to do anything we can to not turn anyone away without food.”
Viana says this past week, community members dropped off hundreds of donated “to go bags” of groceries – enough to help drop-in clients in need.
“This is absolutely the closest thing we’ve felt to the pandemic since then. The thing that connects then and now is just the level of uncertainty,” Viana said. “One vote, one agreement, and we can go back to our normal level of helping people. I hope that our leaders will come together and figure out a way to solve this.”
A federal judge ruled that the Trump Administration has to fund SNAP benefits during the shutdown. The judge gave the option of either partially or fully funding SNAP. Court documents were filed Saturday stating a ruling by a Rhode Island judge ordering payments to SNAP must restart no later than Wednesday Nov. 5.
A mother holds her infant as she shops for food at the pantry inside Care Ring on Plymouth Avenue in Charlotte on Thursday.
Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez
mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Kay Soto-Padgett and their wife didn’t even bother waiting to get into the Bountiful Blessings drive-up food pantry on Thursday.
Its line snaked around several streets in a quiet Gastonia neighborhood. The couple spent some time driving around, hoping to find a place to enter the line, but it seemed to have no end in sight. Even if they did find a place in line, Soto-Padgett was sure they’d be waiting for hours.
Food pantries like Bountiful Blessings have helped Soto-Padgett and their wife stretch the couple’s $500 stipend from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program the last few months. But in November, due to the government shutdown, that food stamp money might not be coming. And the couple, who are still recovering from a car accident this summer, are in the red as they rely on their DoorDash income and loans from family to get by.
To see a program that Soto-Padgett has relied on since they were a kid be paused is scary. But to see it used as a negotiating chip by the federal government is angering, they said.
“At the end of the day, they’re sitting over here fighting across the table. ‘You did this.’ ‘No, you did this.’ ‘No, you did this.’ And we’re just like, can we get some food please?”
President Donald Trump’s tax and spending cut bill, which passed in July, slashed $1 trillion for Medicaid and SNAP. It left states like North Carolina with a difficult choice: find a way to front hundreds of millions of dollars for SNAP annually, or cut the program altogether.
The latter was a feared worst case scenario for the state health department, advocates and recipients. But the current government shutdown has whisked concerns about the impacts on life without food stamps into immediate reality.
On Saturday more than 143,000 Mecklenburg County residents and 1.4 million North Carolinians are likely to experience a pause to their SNAP benefits. A federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration must pay for SNAP benefits during the shutdown, but it was not immediately clear if or how quickly those benefits would appear.
Food pantries in the Charlotte metro region — some of which have already hit record service numbers — are bracing to help the thousands of people whose EBT cards won’t be loaded with their monthly stipend. State and local leaders have warned for months that nonprofits alone do not have the capacity to fill the gaping hole that will be left by cuts or delays in SNAP. The fallout, leaders say, will be catastrophic.
“To just freeze it all together, that’s never happened in the history of SNAP benefits,” said Tina Postel, CEO of Nourish Up. “I mean, it’s never happened. There have been threats of delays and things of that nature. But you are talking (about) millions of Americans. I mean, the numbers are so big it’s hard to even imagine it.”
People shopped for a week’s worth of groceries at the pantry inside Care Ring on Thursday. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
Increased demand came before SNAP threat
In a tucked away corridor inside Care Ring’s headquarters, mothers with their babies and individuals shopping for their families peruse the shelves of the cozy food pantry. The pantry opened in March as part of Nourish Up’s network of 40 food pantries across Mecklenburg County.
Clients, who get access to the pantry on a referral basis, have their choice of canned goods like Campbell’s Spaghetti & Meatballs, cereal, some produce and essentials — like baby bottles and Similac.
In its seven months, Care Ring’s food pantry has provided food to more than 600 households. And for those who come in without an appointment, staff have emergency food boxes prepared so they don’t leave empty-handed.
In the last few weeks, pantry staff said they’ve seen an increase of walk-ins — many federal workers lacking paychecks during the government shutdown, which has no end in sight. With SNAP experiencing delays, they expect an increase in visitors.
“These next couple of weeks are going to really show what’s going on,” said Jennifer Andrews, Care Ring’s director of communications.
The loss of food stamps doesn’t just cause people to be hungry, but has trickle-down effects that seep into other areas of life, said Tchernavia Montgomery, chief executive officer of Care Ring.
“Food is medicine and by preventing access to food, individuals are going to have negative impacts on chronic diseases. It is going to only inflate other issues like poverty, unemployment, and it’s going to put a strain on our safety net system that is already very fragile,” she said.
Since the government shut down, Nourish Up’s network of food pantries has seen a 20% increase in visits largely from federal workers, Postel said. To prepare for the loss of SNAP, the organization has ordered extra tractor trailer loads of food and appealed to the community to donate to help them purchase more meals.
Last year, Nourish Up hit record numbers feeding 164,000 people — enough to fill Bank of America Stadium twice.
The service is vital for families. But there’s a recognition that what they provide is only a Band-Aid on their clients’ true needs, Andrews said. A referral to Nourish Up’s food pantry program grants a client access to any of their network of pantries for a total of 12 times a calendar year. But outside those 12 visits, families have to figure out other options, Andrews said.
Long before the government shutdown, Postel had warned about the impact that the loss of SNAP would have on the community. For every person her organization feeds, SNAP feeds nine more.
“Even if the entire nonprofit sector as a whole came together, there is not a nonprofit big enough. We do not have a superhero cape big enough to make up the gap of this crisis the federal government has created,” she said.
Political games
This is the first time a government shutdown has disrupted SNAP, a program that dates back to the Great Depression. Some feel the most vulnerable are being used as pieces in a political game.
Carmen Hooker Odom, former secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services and board member for Care Ring, never thought she’d see the day that SNAP would become vulnerable. It’s hard for her to wrap her mind around it.
“For an administration that prides itself on business acumen, this doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “If you just look at it, from the return on investment and economic boom to families. And if you have any sense of caring about children and children’s nourishment, and I do think they do care about that. So it doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Carmen Odom, a former secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, volunteers by assisting residents in picking up food from the pantry at Care Ring in Charlotte. Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez mrodriguez@charlotteobserver.com
The Trump administration argued that it can not tap into its $5.5 billion contingency fund to cover SNAP benefits in November. “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” reads a message on the U.S Department of Agriculture’s website. Postel called the choice not to tap into these funds “cruelty at its finest.”
“There is $6 billion sitting in that USDA reserve fund. Now that wouldn’t cover all of SNAP benefits for November, but man, it would give people a lifeline,” she said. “And so, their statement that the ‘well has run dry,’ that couldn’t be more untrue. They are locking those funds behind a wall, and they’re just going to watch people suffer.”
Montgomery described her board of directors as a ‘purple board’. Its members represent many sides of the political spectrum, she said.
“Some way, we find a path towards agreement and understanding. And it has not interrupted our work as an organization because we are aligned to a shared mission and vision for this community,” she said. “It would be my dream for our state and federal government to arrive to a similar place of understanding. So that vulnerable individuals in our community and nonprofit organizations that have vowed to support them are not facing some of the detriment that we believe is ahead.”
Watching the news the past couple weeks and seeing debates over SNAP benefits and health care amidst the shutdown has been frustrating, Soto-Padgett said. It’s hard to watch and not feel like a political pawn, they said.
“Those are human rights. Those are human necessities,” they said of health care and food. “If you don’t take care of us health-wise, we could die. If you don’t feed us, we could die. And instead of sitting at the table and looking at each other and going, ‘OK, Americans are hungry, and they’re sick, we need to be able to meet both needs.’ It’s either one or the other and I don’t think that’s fair.”
Briah Lumpkins is the emerging news reporter for the Charlotte Observer. In this role, she finds important and impactful enterprise stories impacting the Charlotte-metro region. Most previously, Briah spent time in Houston, Texas covering underrepresented suburban communities at the Houston Landing. Prior to that, she spent a year at the Charleston Post and Courier for an investigative reporting fellowship through FRONTLINE PBS. When she’s not at work you can find her binge reading on her kindle or at the movie theater watching the latest premieres.
Community Emergency Assistance Program (CEAP), a local food assistance nonprofit, says it costs them $85,000 a month to help the families already coming to them — that’s before an expected surge when SNAP benefits run out.
“For many of us, the holidays are coming in, we’re thinking about presents, holiday meals,” said Kalleah Kennedy of CEAP. “For a lot of our neighbors coming in, they’re thinking about what can I get on the table right now.”
If you’re looking to help out, they say financial and non-parishable donations are key.
“If everybody does something, nobody has to do everything and a lot of people get helped in the process,” Boyd said.
Hundreds of furloughed federal workers in Hyattsville, Maryland, lined up for emergency food assistance amid a government shutdown that threatens SNAP benefits for millions. The Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries responded with expanded distributions, highlighting growing food insecurity and economic strain across the region.
This article was reprinted with permission from Virginia Mercury.
HYATTSVILLE, Maryland — Ginette Young lined up with hundreds of furloughed federal workers ahead of a special food bank distribution on Tuesday in a suburb just outside the District of Columbia.
“I’m here because I’ve had no paycheck for the last two weeks, and a short paycheck for the two weeks prior. I’ve had to cover bills, and my credit cards have been paying my medical and doctor’s appointments. So I just need to restock the pantry a little bit, just to help get us over the hump,” said Young, a 61-year-old auditor for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Young, a District resident, was among hundreds of furloughed federal workers hoping to get pantry staples and fresh produce at the event sponsored by the Capital Area Food Bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries in Hyattsville.
Food security took center stage in the shutdown debate this week as hundreds of thousands of furloughed government workers faced another missed paycheck and 42 million recipients of federal food assistance were told they will stop receiving benefits Saturday.
The Trump administration has said it will not tap emergency funds at the USDA to extend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, despite loud cries from advocates and Democrats who say it’s perfectly legal for officials to use the rainy day money.
“The longer the shutdown continues, distributions like this will end up being truly a lifeline for so many,” said Radha Muthiah, president and CEO of the Capital Area Food Bank.
“And I worry that we’re just going to see double, triple the numbers of people, both federal government furloughed workers, as well as those who are expecting SNAP benefits and being surprised Saturday morning when they don’t have it,” Muthiah said.
Food bank staff anticipated about 150 households would show up at its first distribution event for federal workers earlier in October. The organization had to quickly double its figures, Muthiah said.
At Tuesday’s event, the food bank and No Limits Outreach Ministries brought enough to serve 400 households. Add a complete stop to food assistance to low-income families, and the region’s hunger needs will skyrocket, Muthiah said.
“In our entire region, there are about 400,000 SNAP recipients, and on average, they receive about $330 in SNAP benefits for a family of two people a month. And so if that were to be disrupted at the cost of a meal in our region, that’s about 80 meals vanishing from the tables of SNAP recipients across our region,” Muthiah said.
“So we are ramping up, purchasing more food to be able to distribute through our partners into the community.”
Kale, collard greens handed out
Tracy Bryce, 59, of District Heights, Maryland, unloaded kale and collard greens from the back of a U-Haul truck as hundreds of federal workers, with employment IDs in hand, waited for the noon distribution to open.
Bryce, a retired U.S. Marshal of 34 years, now volunteers with No Limits Outreach Ministries.
“I’ve been where they are,” Bryce said.
Byron Ford, 34, of Hyattsville, sat for hours in a chair he brought that morning, as temperatures hovered in the high 40s.
“I’m just here today trying to get some food, just trying to provide healthy food for the family,” said Ford, who has two children ages 4 and 7.
“We’re fortunate that we have things like this to provide for people who aren’t receiving a paycheck. So we’re fortunate, we’re still blessed.”
A civilian employee who works in finance for the Department of the Navy, Ford is also worried about family members who receive SNAP benefits.
“We’re just spending our savings and trying to help,” he said.
Young said she remembers what it was like to need SNAP several decades ago.
“I was, you know, trying to work and go to college at the same time, and I had my kid, so yeah, I had SNAP for a little while. It’s meant to help people until they get on their feet,” she said.
A furloughed government project manager who did not want to provide her full name for fear of losing her job, said “being a political pawn is hard.”
“They (lawmakers) get the chance to go home in the middle of all this and not finish with the appropriations, not continue to walk through conversations, because they are choosing to dishonor the position that the people put them in and still get paid while their people suffer,” she said.
Grocers, retailers worry over SNAP cutoff
Retailers and grocers, already bracing for losses when Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” SNAP cuts take effect, are also urging lawmakers to reopen the government.
“We urge Congress to move forward now on a path that reopens the government and ensures families relying on SNAP can access their November benefits without interruption or delay,” Jennifer Hatcher, The Food Industry Association’s chief public policy officer, said in a statement Oct. 21.
The already planned SNAP cuts are slated to cost food retailers hundreds of millions of dollars, industry groups warned.
Food retailers estimate up-front costs of forthcoming new SNAP requirements signed into law by President Donald Trump in July will cost convenience stores roughly $1 billion, supermarkets just over $305 million, supercenters such as Walmart an estimated $215.5 million and small-format stores about $11.8 million, according to an impact analysis last month by The Food Industry Association, the National Association of Convenience Stores and the National Grocers Association.
Ed Bolen, director of SNAP State Strategies at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said retailers could face “very drastic” losses if SNAP is also completely stopped Nov. 1.
“Just imagine a 100% cut for a month or so,” said Bolen, of the left-leaning think tank.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union sent a letter to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins Monday requesting the agency spend contingency funding to extend SNAP benefits beyond next week.
“Rising costs at the grocery store already threaten household budgets, especially for low-income families. An interruption in food assistance will only make matters worse, and workers in meatpacking, food processing, and grocery could see a reduction in hours and wages if SNAP dollars aren’t available to be spent in their stores or on their products,” wrote Milton Jones, president of the union that, according to the organization, represents roughly 1.2 million workers.
A cash-strapped school district that’s looking to unload a shuttered elementary school.
A nonprofit human services agency that’s in need of a bigger home as it serves more than 60,000 households a year.
And a judge who’s telling Colorado’s fifth-largest city not to make any moves on the whole situation — a complex deal that would allow the agency to move into the school — until she can determine whether everything is on the up and up.
That’s the strange nexus at which Lakewood, Jeffco Public Schools and The Action Center have found themselves after their proposed real estate deal was challenged in court by a former Lakewood city councilwoman who thinks the whole arrangement is “taking place in secret.”
“Government should have to do this in a way that’s transparent and above board — and includes the public in this kind of decision-making,” said Anita Springsteen, who’s also an attorney. “I think it’s unethical. I think it’s wrong.”
The deal on the table calls for Lakewood to purchase Emory Elementary — which closed three years ago because of declining enrollment — from Jeffco Public Schools for $4 million. At the same time, the city would buy The Action Center’s existing facility on West 14th Avenue for $4 million.
The Action Center, in turn, would buy Emory from the city for $1 million when the organization, which for more than a half-century has provided free clothing and food, family services and financial assistance to those in need, moves to its new home in the former school on South Teller Street.
The core problem, Springsteen says, is that Lakewood did not properly announce two September 2024 executive sessions during which officials discussed details of the deal in private. In a lawsuit, she accused the city of violating Colorado’s open meetings law, which requires governments to state, in advance and “in as much detail as possible,” what will be discussed behind closed doors “without compromising the purpose for the executive session.”
Jefferson County District Judge Meegan Miloud had enough questions last week about how Lakewood gave public notice of its executive sessions that she imposed a temporary restraining order on the City Council — forbidding it from voting on three ordinances that would authorize the deal to move forward.
The council had been scheduled to consider the measures Monday night.
Miloud said the city’s executive session notices on the council’s September 2024 agendas were “so vague that the public has no way of identifying or discerning what is being negotiated or what property is being assessed.”
On Tuesday morning, the judge conducted a hearing on the matter but did not make a ruling. She called another hearing for next Monday and said in a new order that her injunction remains in effect.
The fast-moving situation has Lakewood playing defense. A special council meeting that had been set for Wednesday night — to once again put the ordinances up for a council vote — will now have to be rescheduled, city spokeswoman Stacie Oulton said.
Lakewood, she contended, has been open throughout the process.
“The public process has included updates from the city manager during public City Council meetings, and the city has followed the public notification process for these agenda items,” she told The Denver Post in an email this week. “Additionally, the proposed end user of the property, the Action Center, has had several public community meetings about its proposal.”
Anita Springsteen, a lawyer and former Lakewood city councilwoman, is leading a challenge to a complex land deal between the City of Lakewood, Jeffco Public Schools and The Action Center that would bring the humans services nonprofit to the former Emory Elementary School in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. She posed for a portrait outside the former school. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Questions about meetings, market value
Jeff Roberts, the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said it was “unusual” for a judge, via a temporary restraining order, to preempt a city council from casting a vote.
But case law, he said, makes it clear that governing bodies in Colorado must provide as much detail as possible when they announce closed-door sessions — short of disclosing or jeopardizing strategies and positions that are crucial in real estate negotiations.
“In general, an announcement that doesn’t give any indication of the topic is not enough information for the public,” Roberts said. “In most cases — and that’s why it’s in the law — you must tell the public what the executive session is about.”
That standard, he said, was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2020, when it ruled that the Basalt Town Council violated the state’s open meetings law several times in 2016 by not properly announcing the topic of private deliberations it would be having regarding a former town manager.
In the Lakewood school matter, the alleged open meetings violations are not the only thing that bothers Springsteen. She objects to the structure of the proposed real estate transaction, saying it would be a sweetheart deal for The Action Center and a waste of money for taxpayers.
“They are stealing money out of our pockets,” said Springsteen, who served on City Council from 2019 to 2023.
Lakewood, she said, would be underpaying for the 17-acre Emory Elementary School parcel, overpaying for The Action Center’s current facility and basically giving the school property away to the nonprofit.
“For the city to not intend to own the property, but to buy it on behalf of a nongovernmental organization — when did we become an agent for other agencies?” Springsteen said.
According to the Jefferson County assessor’s site, The Action Center’s buildings on West 14th Avenue have a total value of about $2 million, while the city has proposed purchasing them for double that. The assessor’s office lists Emory Elementary as having a total value of up to $12 million.
Springsteen said she is flummoxed by the Jeffco school district’s willingness to sell the elementary school to Lakewood for a third of that valuation.
“What bothers me most is the way Jeffco schools is handling this,” she said. “The district didn’t even have a school resource officer at Evergreen High School because of budgetary issues.”
A spokesperson for Jeffco schools said a decision on whether to sell Emory Elementary to Lakewood hadn’t been made yet. That vote, by the district’s school board, is expected Nov. 13.
Raven Price picks out food at The Action Center’s food bank in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
‘We need to bring this into our community’
Pam Brier, the CEO of The Action Center, said property values don’t tell the full story.
“There are many instances locally and nationally of municipalities helping to support the affordable acquisition of properties for organizations like The Action Center — who are serving such a critical need in our community,” she said, “and ultimately saving taxpayer money by helping to meet people’s basic needs.”
On Wednesday, she provided The Denver Post a May 2024 appraisal done by Centennial-based Masters Valuation Services that valued the organization’s current facility — made up of a 14,960-square-foot building and a 15,540-square-foot building — at $4 million.
Her organization, Brier said, serves 300 households a day. It provides a free grocery and clothing market, financial assistance, free meals, family coaching, skills classes and workforce support to people who are down on their luck.
“As public dollars dwindle, our work is more important than ever,” she said. “Without organizations like The Action Center to provide food, clothing and other critical support, individuals and families fall into crisis, needing assistance that will cost taxpayers and cities so much more.”
Oulton, the Lakewood city spokeswoman, said it was not unusual for cities and counties across metro Denver to “provide financial support in a variety of ways to nonprofits that serve their communities.”
“Additionally, Jeffco Public Schools has clearly communicated to the city that the district views the value of this project in more than the dollars involved, because the district’s priority has been to see former schools used in a way that will continue providing services and support to Jeffco Public Schools students and their families,” Oulton said.
Diana Losacco, a 48-year resident of Lakewood who lives about a mile from the Emory site, was one of more than three dozen people who urged the city to pursue the purchase and sale of the school to The Action Center on the Lakewood Speaks website.
Raven Price and her 4-year-old son, Gabriel Luna, head home with a wagon full of food they selected from The Action Center’s food bank in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“This will provide opportunities to people to become self-sufficient, which will provide significant financial savings for our community,” Losacco told The Post in an interview. “We need to bring this into our community. It needs to be in a neighborhood.”
But not her neighborhood, said Katherine Byrne. Byrne has owned Stockton Pet Hospital on South Wadsworth Boulevard for six years. The business, which was founded in 1964, sits just a few hundred feet west of Emory Elementary.
There are enough challenges with assaults, shots fired and drug dealing in the vicinity, especially along the nearby bike path, Byrne said. Because The Action Center won’t be providing overnight shelter space at its new location for people who are homeless, she worries about where people using the organization’s services might go once the doors close.
And she wonders why the city didn’t look at wealthier areas of Lakewood for potential sites to relocate The Action Center.
“It’s just a ridiculous, unsavory plan to put this center in the middle of a neighborhood that didn’t know it was coming,” Byrne said.
Minnesota’s food shelves are set to get a funding boost amid surging demand stemming from the ongoing government shutdown.
Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday announced millions in emergency funding to fight food insecurity in the state.
“We’re using our contingency accounts to add $4 million to the food banks across Minnesota,” Walz said. “This will be a bridge. I want to be very clear, it will not make up and backfill everything that is going to drop off starting on Saturday. We do not have that capacity.”
More than 440,000 Minnesotans will lose Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits on Saturday without a solution to the shutdown. The state’s food banks are bracing for an increased need for their services, even as they struggle to meet the existing need. The Food Group, a Minnesota nonprofit, said visits to food shelves in the state rose 18% between 2023 and 2024.
The Trump administration has said it will not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing. The program helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries.
Walz accused the Trump administration of prioritizing a new White House ballroom over funding food assistance. He also called on Congress to get the government running again.
“The solution to this is, one, end the shutdown and go back to work,” Walz said. “Two, quit scapegoating people who are hungry and making up stories that are not true and do your job.”
The shutdown began Oct. 1 and is now the second-longest on record.
The Denver Post Season To Share is the annual holiday fundraising campaign for The Denver Post and The Denver Post Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Grants are awarded to local nonprofit agencies that provide life-changing programs to help low-income children, families and individuals move out of poverty toward stabilization and self-sufficiency. Visit seasontoshare.com to learn more or to donate now.
When CEO Erin Pulling thinks about the new Food Bank of the Rockies distribution center, currently under construction in Aurora, what excites her most is the lobby.
This will be no mere entryway. Instead, Pulling calls “a welcoming center” where hundreds of daily volunteers will come to get their assignments. It will have meeting rooms where donors can congregate and glass windows so that visitors can peer into the warehouse and see the food bank’s mission in action.
“It really just is the epicenter,” Pulling said. “It’s a vision of what’s possible and what’s happening.”
Food Bank of the Rockies CEO Erin Pulling at the organization’s warehouse in Denver on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo By Patrick Traylor/The Denver Post)
The Food Bank of the Rockies broke ground on its new, $75 million distribution center more than a year ago and the project is almost to the finish line. Pulling said the organization has raised 90% of the funds needed to complete the build out and is currently running a campaign to raise the remaining $7.5 million. Operations are expected to relocate there this winter.
That may seem like a hefty price tag, but the new facility will immediately be a cost saver, Pulling said. The Food Bank of the Rockies currently rents a secondary warehouse for food distribution as well as an off-site parking lot for its delivery trucks, both of which it will be able to give up and bring in-house at the new facility.
Of course, Pulling’s excitement isn’t just about the efficiencies this facility will allow. At 270,000 square feet, the new operations hub will also enable the organization to expand its capacity to meet the growing needs of residents it serves in 33 Colorado counties and throughout the state of Wyoming.
The onsite kitchen, for one, will be four times larger with the ability to prepare up to 10,000 meals per day, Pulling said. More dock space and refrigeration will also allow the food bank to accept more produce and perishable items for those in need.
“Right now, we’re really just out of space and sometimes having to turn away donated food because we don’t have enough dock space or refrigeration space,” she said. “We can engage 300 volunteers a day in the new building, whereas right now we’re capped at 100 a day.”
The food bank’s upgrade couldn’t come at a better time, she noted. The number of food-insecure individuals across the U.S. is soaring alongside the cost of living. In 2023, about one in eight Coloradans (12.7%) were food insecure, according to an annual report by nonprofit Feeding America. The rate of local children facing insecurity was even higher that year, at 14.3%.
Food Bank of the Rockies
Address: 10700 E. 45th Ave., Denver In operation since: 1978 Number of employees: 220 Number of volunteers: 24,000 annually Annual budget: $53 million Number of clients served in fiscal year 2021: 400,000+
But Pulling said demand has continued to rise. Since June, the nonprofit has seen a 10% increase in the number of people seeking its mobile food distributions. In some areas, like Aurora, attendance has climbed more than 20%, she said.
With recent cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and changes to its eligibility criteria, Pulling expects future needs to be greater than at any time in the Food Bank of the Rockies 47-year history. At the same time, the organization has lost access to a portion of its food supply due to reductions in federal nutritional programs.
“Food insecurity is becoming more of a public health crisis than ever before, and this is really the perfect storm,” she said.
To meet demand, the Food Bank of the Rockies has grown from its humble roots “rescuing” food, like bread, headed for grocery store dumpsters to offer numerous programs that help get nutritious items to Coloradans who need them most. Most of the food it receives, through rescues or donations, helps stock pantries at more than 800 hunger relief organizations serving both urban and rural communities.
Additionally, the food bank prepares meals for kids in summer and after-school programs, deploys mobile food pantries to targeted communities, and offers home grocery delivery for older adults. Its Totes for Hope program sends children home with food to cover their weekend needs, and individuals with certain health conditions can also enroll in the Food for Health Program, which ensures they get curated boxes of food to keep their symptoms and vitals in check.
“The big shift over the last many years is more focus on nutritional quality of food and the cultural relevance of the food we are providing to make sure the food we are providing is familiar to the neighbors we are serving,” Pulling said.
Cook lead Aleyna Jenkins, left, and volunteers Karen Wimberly, second from left, and Troy Quintana, right, help assemble ready-to-eat meals at Food Bank of the Rockies in Denver on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo By Patrick Traylor/The Denver Post)
Part of that work involves sustainably sourcing produce, which often has a short shelf life and can be difficult to rescue. Food Bank of the Rockies now purchases much of its fresh produce from Colorado-based farmers, helping boost local economies while simultaneously making these items more accessible – all in hopes of nourishing locals so they can reach their full potential.
“People experiencing food insecurity, if they’re turning in general to less expensive foods, we know that other factors of their life are likely suffering, such as their health status and then medical costs and then ability to perhaps maintain health, take care of kids, don’t have missed work, things like that,” Pulling said. “It’s such a cycle and the right nutritious food is such an important element of that cycle for people to be successful citizens and decrease their eventual dependence on food banks and food pantries.”
People who donate money to the Food Bank of the Rockies can make their dollar go farther. Because of its massive purchasing power, just $1 translates to the equivalent of three meals, Pulling said. Don’t have any spare change? Every day, the organization’s distribution centers in Denver and Grand Junction depend on more than 100 volunteers to package food and cook meals.
Long Island Cares – The Harry Chapin Regional Food Bank has named Katherine Fritz as its new president and CEO, effective immediately. Fritz succeeds Paule Pachter, who, after leading the Hauppauge-based organization for 17 years, announced plans to retire earlier this year, saying he would serve as president emeritus in an advisory role.
Having served Long Island Cares since 2019 as its vice president for development and communication, Fritz was the organization’s “unanimous choice to guide Long Island through the food-insecurity crisis,” according to a news release about Fritz’s appointment.
“After a nationwide search, the Board of Directors of Long Island Cares found its next leader down the hall from the boardroom,” David Herold, president of the Board of Directors at Long Island Cares, said in the news release.
The appointment comes at a time of rising costs and, as LIBN reported earlier this year, growing food insecurity on Long Island. And amid a federal government shutdown, food banks are bracing for new demand, according to published reports.
In Hauppauge, Fritz will lead Long Island Cares forward, bolstering its role as both a safety net and an agent of change, according to the organization. Committed to the mission of uniting resources to fight hunger, she will keep that focus central to all decisions, partnerships and programs. She will emphasize stability during the transition while driving the vision of a hunger-free Long Island, the organization said.
“She will lead us in meeting the ever-increasing need ahead, which is what the battle against the challenging climate surrounding food insecurity requires,” Herold said. “We believe that with her steady hand on the tiller, our mission will be advanced and the future of the people we serve will be brighter.”
Fritz aims to strengthen collaboration with Long Island Cares’ 300-plus community partners, including food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, senior citizens’ residences, schools and homeless shelters. She will expand programs targeting the root causes of hunger and boost advocacy for equity and dignity across Long Island, the organization said.
She also aims to prioritize trust-building across staff, board members and community partners while strengthening financial and operational resilience, according to the news release. She will lead the implementation of the organization’s 2025–2030 strategic plan to address current needs with the goal of advancing a more equitable future.
Fritz served in development and leadership positions in the nonprofit sector for more than 30 years, working in environmental and healthcare organizations, including in three divisions with the American Cancer Society. She spent more than 12 years as director of development for both the Guide Dog Foundation and America’s VetDogs, where she managed national fundraising strategies and annual budgets exceeding $18 million.
Fritz has been an adjunct faculty instructor at Molloy College, supporting the Nonprofit Management Certificate Program. She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and as past president of its Long Island chapter.
Additionally, Fritz serves as president of the board of Brookhaven Art & Music, a youth orchestra, and has held numerous board, committee and advisory positions for environmental and arts nonprofits.
Fritz holds a B.S. from Long Island University at Southampton and is pursuing a master’s degree in human services leadership at St. Joseph’s University.
Founded in 1980 by singer-songwriter and activist Harry Chapin, Long Island Cares today distributes more than 16 million pounds of food and supplies annually to its partner agencies. With its main office and warehouse in Hauppauge, the organization operates seven food pantries throughout Nassau and Suffolk counties.
A community-based nonprofit is trying to change the lack of grocery stores in Anacostia by opening the Marion Barry Avenue Market & Cafe, a small grocery store and café to serve the area.
This page contains a video which is being blocked by your ad blocker. In order to view the video you must disable your ad blocker.
New grocery opens in Anacostia, providing more food options for Ward 8 residents
One of the main concerns of residents who live in D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood is the lack of grocery stores. Now, a community-based nonprofit is trying to change that by opening a small grocery store and cafe to serve the area last week.
The new store is called the Marion Barry Avenue Market & Cafe named after the former mayor who lived nearby. It’s 4,500 square feet and it’s part grocery store, part kitchen and part restaurant.
Founder and Executive Director Christopher Bradshaw said the nonprofit running the market is trying to solve some long-standing challenges in Ward 8 when it comes to providing high-quality food choices to residents.
“We’re trying to make sure that the community here in Anacostia in Ward 8, east of the river and beyond, has access to healthy food and economic opportunity,” Bradshaw said. “Despite our small footprint, we have more than 900 different items here, so there’s a lot of choice.”
He said the market “can’t compete with those big box retailers, but we’re certainly more than the convenience store, and we certainly have a culture that speaks to our community more than any of those other options.”
The Marion Barry Avenue Market & Cafe is an initiative of Dreaming Out Loud, a nonprofit that is dedicated to rebuilding urban community-based food systems. The organization is supported by investments from both public and private partners, including the Longer Tables Fund founded by Chef José Andrés, and Mayor Muriel Bowser through the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development’s Food Access Fund.
People entering the market will find the shelves are packed with a wide variety of competitively-priced, locally-grown vegetables and fruits. The market works with regional farms and urban growers offering items at prices that are accessible, including sliding-scale and voucher-friendly options.
Store employee Miss Que is a Ward 8 resident.
“There’s only one grocery store up on the top of the corner. It’s not enough grocery options for us, and I feel like everywhere else has it. Why not here?” she said.
Bradshaw added that if this market is successful, they’d like to add at least two or three more similar stores in the coming years.
“Our goals are really to bring more people in … and be able to replicate and make it happen across Ward 7 and Ward 8 in particular, so that we’re closing the grocery gap with community ownership and control,” he said.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
