Food insecurity rates in Northeast Pennsylvania already exceed the national and state averages, but federal funding cuts to social services programs and last year’s state budget impasse have created an even greater strain on the region’s food banks.
Inflation, rising food costs and funding cuts to the United States Department of Agriculture and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have left federally and state-funded faith-based and community nonprofit organizations scrambling to keep up with rising demand.
Pennsylvania will lose more than $8.8 billion in SNAP funding by 2034, state and federal agencies estimate. According to Feeding America’s 2023 statistics, the most recent information available, the food insecurity rate in Pennsylvania was 13.2%. Multiple counties in Pennsylvania exceeded the national and state averages, including Luzerne (15.5%), Lackawanna (15.1%) and Schuylkill (14.4%) counties. The national food insecurity rate in 2024 was 13.7%, according to the USDA.
Schuylkill Community Action is responsible for managing the Schuylkill Food Network, which consists of 21 community pantries across Schuylkill County. One of their major pantry partners, Helping Harvest, canceled memberships with various Schuylkill County pantries, disrupting their food supply chain, according to Schuylkill County Community Action Director Dave Young. Helping Harvest attributed the membership cancellations to federal funding cuts.
“Our pantry partners are working hard to keep up with demand, and we are responding on a day-to-day basis to ensure sites remain adequately stocked. At the same time, we have faced some supply chain challenges,” Young said. “Most notably, our regional Feeding America distributor, Helping Harvest, canceled the memberships of eight of our sites and is currently not permitting new memberships. This has required us to adjust how we source food for several pantries within the network.”
The Schuylkill County commissioners appointed SCA as the lead agency in administering the SFN as well as the State Food Purchase Program and the Emergency Food Assistance Program for the county.
“These pantries serve geographically defined communities with the goal of bringing publicly funded food resources closer to home for residents in need,” Young said.
Helping Harvest reorganized its structure to best serve the communities most in need after federal funding cuts, according to Marketing and Communications Coordinator Nikki Gum.
“This reorganization was done in order to avoid duplication of services in areas with other charitable food network resources and to ensure we serve areas of need in the county as effectively as possible,” Gum said.
Helping Harvest’s agencies have not seen a noticeable increase in the use of their pantries since people began to lose SNAP benefits. They have seen a general increase as food prices have continued to rise, Gum said. They have kept up with demand and have not dealt with any food shortages. They have seen an increase in requests for assistance with SNAP applications and did see a large increase in use during the SNAP pauses in fall 2025.
“We have definitely heard that demand is increasing due to rising prices. In fact, our SNAP and outreach coordinator just reported that she is receiving increased calls for SNAP application assistance, so even if benefit amounts are decreasing, the number of people calling to apply is actually increasing for the first time since the benefits were cut back in October and November,” Gum said. “We did see a big increase in demand around the time of the federal government shutdown and pause in SNAP payments. In October 2025, we had our biggest-ever monthly distribution in Schuylkill County at 284,466 pounds. The previous high was 251,521 in November 2022 during the height of the pandemic.”
It isn’t just unemployed and homeless people that rely on food pantries. Helping Harvest has seen an increase in employed people and working families using their services.
“As prices of goods rise, we have certainly seen an increase of individuals who are employed coming to distributions for food assistance. The pandemic helped to bring the charitable food system to the forefront of many people’s minds and made it more accessible for those who might find themselves in need of assistance. For many working households, accessing the charitable food network helps their family to free up money for other expenses,” Gum said.
Schuylkill Community Action also has noticed an increase in working-class families at their pantries.
“Demand for food assistance has remained elevated over the past several years, and we are continuing to see more working families seeking support as the cost of food, housing and other basic necessities has increased. Many households that may not have previously relied on pantry services are now turning to these resources to help stretch their budgets,” Young said.
The SCA has kept up with rising demand through donations and community support. They have also come up with strategies to sustain them long term.
“These changes have required us to evaluate and adapt the way we source food and donations to meet the ongoing and growing need in the community. In the short term, we have been able to continue meeting demand, and we are actively working to expand community and corporate partnerships to ensure the long-term viability of the food network. While this has increased administrative responsibilities, our commitment to serving Schuylkill County residents remains strong,” Young said.
In Lackawanna County, the food pantry operated by Catholic Social Services, located at 34 River St. in Carbondale, has struggled to keep up with demand within the last year, and at times has not been able to keep up with the nutritional guidelines set by the Lackawanna County Food Policy Council.
“It is difficult, and we talk about it all the time. We’re giving out pasta every week for six weeks. We’re giving out peanut butter and jelly every week for six weeks. They’ve got to be sick of it. … We’re going to do the best we can. And this year has been tough. It’s been very tough,” said Lackawanna County Emergency Services Director for Catholic Social Services Joliette Lyons.
Lyons said the Carbondale pantry has already seen the impact of SNAP cuts.
“The SNAP benefits are getting cut. So, (people) may have been getting an amount before that they are not getting anymore, and it was hard to feed children and families off of that amount, and now that’s cut,” Lyons said. “So, a lot of them are coming in supplemental as well, right? You know, ‘I can do it for the first half of the month, but then the last half of the month I need to stretch, and I need to come here, and I need to get food for my family.’”
The Carbondale pantry also faced a funding delay from the State Food Purchasing Program that added to their problems.
Catholic Social Services usually receives an annual grant around September designated for the Carbondale pantry to purchase items such as protein, dairy and grains, CEO Joe Mahoney said. Due to administrative changes within the state program and the state budget impasse that was not resolved until November, CSS did not receive its $72,000 grant until early March.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture distributes State Food Purchase Program funds directly to each county. Counties then distribute the funds to a designated lead agency, which then allocates funds to food pantries and other organizations. State Food Purchase Program dollars for the 2025-26 year were distributed later than usual, in part because the state Legislature was unable to deliver a budget to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk until November.
In Luzerne County, the Commission on Economic Opportunity Weinberg Regional Food Bank also has seen an increase in demand and in new clientele.
“At CEO’s Weinberg Regional Food Bank, we are seeing increased demand across our region, including here in Luzerne County,” said Director of Nutrition Programs and Resource Development Gretchen Hunt. “Last month alone, our 125 local Luzerne County partners helped provide more than 32,000 meals and groceries to over 13,000 families — and more than 1,000 of those families were visiting a food pantry for the first time. That tells us this isn’t just persistent need; it’s new need, and we are seeing more working families struggling to make ends meet.”
Hunt said the federal funding cuts are presenting a challenge for CEO Weinberg and its partners. In the future, they will have to rely more on community support and donors than they have previously.
“Changes to SNAP and reductions in federal support for food programs are creating a real strain. As demand rises, the resources available to meet that need are shrinking. This means less food on the shelves at a time when more people are turning to us for help. Moving forward, our ability to keep up with demand will depend heavily on continued support from our community, including local donors, to help fill the gap,” Hunt said.
According to the PDA, SNAP is the nation’s most important and effective anti-hunger program. The USDA Economic Research Service found that every $1 billion in federal SNAP benefits increases the Gross Domestic Product by $1.54 billion and specifically supports job creation and income for food retailers and farmers. And for every one meal the charitable food network provides, SNAP provides nine.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law in July, included an overhaul of the federal SNAP program. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, under new federal rules, to keep or become eligible for SNAP benefits certain people must meet work requirements that include working, volunteering or participating in an education or training program for at least 20 hours a week (or 80 hours a month). These rules apply to people who are between 18 and 64 years old and do not have a dependent child under 14 and are considered physically and mentally able to work.
The act also includes a change in how much states are required to contribute to SNAP programs. Historically the federal government paid 100% of the cost of SNAP benefits, with states contributing 50% of administrative costs. States are required to pay 75% of administrative costs, and beginning in 2027 states with payment error rates of 6% or higher will have to pay up to 15% of SNAP benefits.
The Congressional Budget Office projects that federal SNAP funds will be cut by $186 billion by 2035, the largest cut in the program’s history. The CBO also projects all of the provisions of the OBBBA will result in a monthly reduction of 2.4 million SNAP participants nationwide through 2035.
