Most children wake up thinking about school, friends, pets, and other typical concerns of childhood. Elizabeth Ford, Founder and CEO of BetterALife in Purcellville, VA, remembers having only one immediate concern as a child when she first opened her eyes – food. Not what she would eat, but if she would eat.
“That was just a daily thing,” Ford told SavingAdvice. “It was a matter of waking up and saying, ‘How are we going to eat today?’
“I grew up food insecure. So, what I did to supplement not having food at home is I would go to 7-Eleven every day, and my friends and I would sit outside, and we’d ask people for quarters. We called it bumming quarters, and with those quarters, we would go into 7-Eleven and buy our hot dog, nachos, you know, drinks, whatever it was that would fill our bellies that day. And that was average.”
Today, through BetterALife, Ford works to help feed others in Northern Virginia, including children growing up as she did.
Growing Need
Roughly 48 million Americans lived in food-insecure households in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Economic Research Service’s Household Food Security in the United States report. Of that number, 14.1 million were children under 18.
The USDA’s annual report reflects two-year-old data. As a result, those figures may be woefully out of date. Information from people with boots on the ground and local and regional food banks shows that food assistance requests are rising rapidly.
Marianne Lynch, executive director of The Open Link, a food pantry about 40 miles north of Philadelphia, is “seeing a 25% rise in use of the pantry, as well as an uptick in distribution of emergency food bags.”
Jane Poole, Chairman of the Board of the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry in Southern California, reports a similar surge in requests for food assistance. “Our numbers continue to climb; we are still up versus last year, about 26%.” However, that number may be growing.
“We are being hit with new clients each distribution day,” Poole reports, adding, “Demand has reached record highs. Lines wrap around the block, and many neighbors seeking assistance are doing so for the first time.”
Jillian Hishaw, attorney and founder/director of Family Agriculture Resource Management Services (F.A.R.M.S.), reports a similar trend. Her organization works with farmers to purchase produce, which is distributed to various food banks.
“We recently sent 32,000 pounds of sweet potatoes to a South Carolina food bank,” Hishaw told SavingAdvice, “and the line to get them stretched nearly three blocks.”
Who Are the Hungry?
Many of the food assistance recipients Ford sees are the working poor, people stuck in low-paying jobs and unable to find higher-paying employment.
“Typically, the person has a job, and so that job is going to pay the rent,” says Ford. “And if it’s a matter of rent or food, they want to keep the roof over their heads.”
“We find a remarkable increase in food insecurity, particularly among lower-educated and lower-income households and households with young children,” economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wrote in the bank’s blog late last month.
However, the same post noted that current economic conditions are creating a have-and-have-not society that is increasingly pushing the middle class into financially troubled waters. This is referred to as a “K-shaped” economy.
“The top of the K-shape reflects high and growing levels of net wealth, fueled by rising stock prices, near-peak home equity levels, and reductions in mortgage payments following the 2020-21 refinance boom,” the New York Fed reported. “The bottom of the K-shape represents a significant share of the middle- and lower-income population experiencing elevated levels of economic uncertainty and financial hardship.”
“The people who are being affected most are those who live on the poverty line,” according to Poole, “and also those who even make 50k.”
What is Causing the Surge In Requests for Food?
The disproportionate impact of inflation, coupled with cuts in federal funding, is the primary driver of increased requests for food assistance, sources tell SavingAdvice.
“Lower- and middle-income households generally have experienced higher effective inflation rates,” notes the New York Fed, “with a greater share of their spending allocated to goods that have seen prices soar since the pandemic, such as housing, groceries, and utilities, causing them to cut back on groceries.”
“The rise in prices in just about everything is not sustainable and is hitting those without discretionary income, like seniors and working families, the hardest,” states Lynch. “That, coupled with the scale back of SNAP and Medicaid are continuing to increase demand on the charitable food system.”
“Food assistance requests are surging due to inflation rising, increased grocery store costs, due to tariffs and higher operating expenses, including increased wages for workers, health care costs, and high gas prices,” asserts Poole.
Higher inflation is also hurting farmers who grow the produce that food pantries rely on to feed the hungry.
“The cost of produce has risen dramatically,” says Hishaw, whose law practice handles bankruptcies. “Our cost for a tractor-trailer of produce has tripled in the last year.
“Even the farmers are having trouble. Chapter 12 is a bankruptcy filing for farmers, and the number of Chapter 12 filings has doubled. I’m getting triple the calls.”
SNAP Cuts
Efforts to feed Americans facing food insecurity began in the 1930s, during the Great Depression. By 1939, the food stamp program was launched. It was halted during World War II due to shortages and revived again with the Food Stamp Act of 1964. Today, it is called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“The SNAP program helps more than 42 million Americans buy food each month,” Sara Bleich, Professor of Public Health Policy at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, said in a Kennedy School interview. “That’s one in eight Americans, and 70% of those participants are the elderly, disabled, or children.”
SNAP is funded by the federal government and administered by each state. However, those federal funds have been cut, resulting in 4.3 million Americans losing benefits. That figure is expected to rise.
Asked about the impact of reduced SNAP funding, Ford offered a real-world example.
“So, we help provide lunches to children at schools,” says Ford. “We’ll drop off 25 lunches to a school, for example, and then that school gives them to children they know are not going to eat that day. But in January, we were at about 300 lunches a month, and by March, we were at 900. Now, we are over 1,000 per month, and that’s just in the little area we serve.”
What Action Cut SNAP Benefits?
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law last year. It eliminates about $186 billion in SNAP funds over the next 10 years. That is the largest cut in the program’s history.
In addition to axing SNAP funding, the legislation imposes tighter work and paperwork requirements on program recipients. Now, adults with children over 14 must work at least 20 hours a week. The same rule applies to adults between 18 and 64 without dependents. However, added paperwork may be the greatest challenge. Each month, SNAP participants must document their work hours and file a report with their state. From that point, state officials have to review and process each report, adding to state administrative costs.
Medicaid Cuts
In addition to food insecurity, an increasing number of lower-middle and low-income families have lost their medical benefits. The OBBBA cuts approximately $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over 10 years.
Cutting Medicaid benefits from 2022 to 2024 led to a 23% increase in the number of uninsured children, according to a report issued Monday. The report came from the Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. The CCF estimated last week that two million children have lost medical insurance due to cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) since January 2025, with millions more expected.
Summer Food Scarcity for Children
Many children look forward to summer vacation free of the rigors and regimen of school. However, for those facing food insecurity, summer can be a time of stress and anxiety.
“Summer is actually the hungriest time for families and children,” says Ford. “There is less food coming into the children who normally rely on that free or reduced-cost lunch they’re getting at school. That is especially true where I am in Western Loudon County. There are over 1,200 children who lose that once school closes.”
In addition to its year-round food pantry, BetterALife runs several programs aimed at feeding children in the summer. Many other food pantries also take extra measures to feed kids when school is out.
The Open Link has expanded its services to meet increased client demand, including staying open Tuesday evenings.
“Increased hunger overall has also fueled our other food-related programs,” reports Lynch, “including our Summer Kids Meal Program, where we distribute free breakfasts and lunches to all kids 18 and under in the Valley, and our senior center community lunch program.”
The combination of inflationary costs and increased applications for food assistance is putting more pressure on food banks.
“A lot of food banks are stretched to the limit, because of government funding cuts,” says Hishaw. “A lot of the food banks we work with are in rural areas, and they are cutting back.”
What to Read Next
The ‘Group D’ Delay: Why Some SNAP Households May See a $0 Balance Until Their Regular June Issuance After the May 17 System Update
SNAP Benefit Recalculations Are Rolling Out Now — Here’s How They Could Affect Your Food Money
Sugar Crackdown: 4 States Ban Candy & Soda for SNAP Users – Are More Restrictions Coming?
