At the Community Hunger Outreach Warehouse, or CHOW, on Binghamton’s south side, workers load up pallets of boxes full of chips.
Les Aylesworth, who directs the network of food pantries, said rising costs, fewer donations and an increase in need have made it hard to make sure they can provide meals and groceries across the county. But so far, they haven’t had to turn anyone away.
“We really have had to work harder, but we've done it, the hard work’s paying off,” Aylesworth said. “As you can see, our warehouse is not empty. We've had times where it has been empty.”
But he said by next week, the situation could be different. Compared to this time last year, CHOW has distributed 34% more food. In all of 2022, they sent out over 2 million meals.
“The amount of food we're purchasing today is way off the charts higher than we used to. And so that's just the new world,” Aylesworth said. “And so what that's forced us to do is make new relationships, find new, other organizations that are doing emergency food work.”
With the recent rollback of pandemic-era increases to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, people have less in food benefits to spend. Some households across the country saw a reduction of as much as $250 a month.
Between rising food costs and cuts to government assistance, Broome County food pantries say they are seeing many more people in need. Some pantries are struggling to meet the demand.
Barb Donnelly from Showers of Hope at St. Patrick’s Church in Binghamton, which provides free groceries Monday through Friday, said they have seen a sharp rise in demand for food.
“Food insecurity has almost doubled for us. In January of this year, we served 1,300 families, 5,900 individuals,” Donnelly said. “This past March, we did 1,915 families, almost 9,000 individuals last month.”
Donnelly said they see many older residents who can’t afford to pay for their prescriptions, as well as groceries.
Barb Knighton, who runs St. Michael’s food pantry and community meal program, said they’re seeing more people who are working and still need help with food. She mentions one family who had found some financial stability and was able to stop coming to the food pantry a while back.
“Well, they're back at my pantry now, because it's a matter of do we pay the light bill or do we buy groceries?" Knighton said.
St. Michaels used to offer meals and groceries once a month. Now, they have had to add more days and more hours to meet the need.