Lift carts zigzag between towering steel shelves at the Greater Boston Food Bank, ferrying crates of food that will soon fill the shelves of local pantries. The warehouse hums with urgency as the holidays approach, but this year, the usual bustle has turned into a full-blown scramble. The culprit? A recent reduction in SNAP food benefits has triggered a surge in demand that refuses to let up, even as most SNAP payments have started flowing again. For many on the front lines of America’s food assistance network, the sense of crisis is palpable—and the forecast is grim.
Adrian James, the warehouse lead at the Greater Boston Food Bank, has a front-row seat to the unfolding situation. As he steers a pallet of onions toward a waiting truck, he voices what many are quietly fearing: "This is just the beginning. Who knows how bad it could get. That's the scary part." According to NPR, James’s apprehension is echoed throughout the food bank’s cavernous aisles, where staff are racing to keep up with the relentless pace.
CEO Catherine D'Amato is focused on the immediate challenge: raising enough funds to buy more food and keep the operation running for as long as possible. But she’s clear-eyed about the scale of the problem. "This is not a matter of one and done," she tells NPR. The food bank is, in her words, bracing for an extended period of high demand, and she’s not alone in that assessment.
Across the nation, food banks and pantries are feeling the squeeze. The recent SNAP payment disruption may be over, but the aftershocks linger. And a bigger storm is brewing: the Trump administration’s Big Beautiful Bill Act is set to slash federal SNAP spending by billions over the next few years. On top of that, anticipated cuts to Medicaid, affordable housing programs, and health insurance subsidies are expected to heap even more pressure onto the charitable food sector, which already supports millions of low-income Americans.
Linda Nageotte, president of Feeding America—a network that spans food banks, pantries, and meal programs nationwide—warns that the pain is far from over. "More people will lose benefits and they will increasingly need to turn to the charitable food sector, and that will turn need up again and again and again as those changes go into effect," she tells NPR. The prospect is daunting for organizations already stretched thin.
Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara Bleich, who has worked on food security and nutrition for both the Obama and Biden administrations, uses even starker language. She describes the coming wave as "like a tsunami, which is going to just wipe out people." The effects, she says, will be felt for generations. "It's going to have a generational impact, and it's just heartbreaking."
With federal support on the decline, food banks are increasingly relying on help from state and local governments, as well as private donations. But as NPR reports, leaders in the sector say it’s simply unrealistic to expect charities to fill the gap. Historically, federal programs have provided nine times the food that charitable organizations distribute. The math just doesn’t add up.
Eric Cooper, CEO of the San Antonio Food Bank in Texas, is candid about the challenges he faces. "I'm anxious and I'm not sleeping," he admits to NPR. Despite his hope that demand might eventually subside, he fears that’s wishful thinking: "I'm still sending out more [food] than what's coming in." This year, his inventory is less than half what it usually is in the week before Thanksgiving, and the cost of restocking keeps climbing. An advance order for holiday turkeys, placed a year ago, was voided by the vendor due to soaring prices. Cooper has also had to hire extra drivers and pay staff overtime just to keep food moving. And the usual cushion from fall fundraising? Already spent, weeks before the holidays even begin. "We're just not going to be able to fill that need," Cooper says.
The story is much the same at the Facing Hunger Food Bank in Huntington, West Virginia. CEO Cynthia Kirkhart reports that demand has not dropped, and her staff have worked 18 days straight without a break. The emotional toll is heavy. Kirkhart recalls a recent day at a mobile pantry when, after hours of distributing food, all that remained was a single bag of potatoes. Two families waited in one car. "It came down to a bag of potatoes," she remembers. Her staff offered the bag and explained, "This is all we have." They asked the families to split it. "That's soul searing," Kirkhart says.
Even as food banks struggle, the Trump administration maintains that the SNAP cuts are both necessary and prudent. Officials say the changes are designed to ensure the program’s sustainability for future generations by cracking down on "proven cases of waste, fraud and abuse." In a statement to NPR, a spokesperson said, "The President is doing something about it." It’s a perspective that resonates with some on the ground, even as they grapple with the fallout.
Richard Green, director of the Saint Matthew's pantry in Dorchester, Massachusetts, is one of those who sees both sides. He’s been volunteering for a decade and calls feeding the hungry his "mission." While he admits, "We can't keep up with it," he doesn’t blame the federal government for tightening eligibility. "The government has to be vigilant and make sure that everybody that's on SNAP is eligible to be on SNAP," Green tells NPR. "You'd be a fool if you didn't think that a lot of people would be taking advantage of it." Still, he’s realistic about what lies ahead. Demand isn’t going away, and Green is working on new systems to make it easier for his pantry to accept online donations—hoping every bit helps.
For now, the Greater Boston Food Bank and its counterparts across the country are rebuilding inventory and bracing for the long haul. The holidays may bring a brief uptick in giving, but with federal support dwindling and the need rising, food banks are left to wonder just how much more they’ll be asked to do with less. The uncertainty hangs in the air, as heavy as the pallets stacked high in their warehouses.
As the nation heads into the festive season, the people working hardest to keep America fed are steeling themselves for what could be a very long winter indeed.