As the holidays approach, food banks are feeling the effects of funding cuts, but striving to keep North Carolinians from going hungry.
The recent federal government shutdown, which lasted 43 days and became the longest shutdown in U.S. history, sent more people than usual to food banks. These included federal workers who weren’t getting paid and people who lost access to food assistance programs like SNAP.
But while food insecurity has become more evident in recent weeks, it isn’t new, according to Jason Kanawati Stephany, vice president of communications and public policy at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina.
“Our communities were already facing the worst hunger crisis in a generation before the shutdown,” he said.
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cancelled $1 billion in funding for two programs that allowed food banks and schools to buy food from local farms and ranchers.
Along with restricting purchasing power for those groups, the cuts also meant less income for local farmers. In turn, some of them turned to food pantries for help.
The budget cuts continued through the spring. In April, the federal government scaled back on The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), which works to stabilize the agricultural market by buying produce from farmers and distributing it to food banks.
That cut cost food banks in North Carolina over 80 truckloads of food, Kanawati Stephany said.
According to Kanawati Stephany, the combination of cuts meant less food and more need for assistance, even before the shutdown and loss of SNAP benefits drove demand even higher.
“It has really created a perfect storm in the worst possible way,” he said. “Hunger is a policy choice.”
Despite these setbacks, local communities have stepped up.
The Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina saw a record number of donated products in October. There are more than 700 local food assistance sites across the network, and Kanawati Stephany stressed that food is available to all who need it.
“We are depending on that community generosity more than ever because the federal support that we have long drawn on is just no longer there,” Kanawati Stephany said.
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