Food banks in several states say more people are coming to them for help while the food they get from the federal government is shrinking. In Pennsylvania, federal food distributed through the state's charitable network fell by more than 37.5 million pounds, or 54 percent, from fiscal year 2024, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank reported; two-thirds of that drop came from fewer "bonus" purchases under the federal Emergency Food Assistance Program and about a third from the Agriculture Department's 2025 cancellation of a local food purchasing program. At 115 of the food bank's partner pantries that track visits digitally, demand rose an average of 9.1 percent since January 2025. Dozens of food banks told NBC News in a survey published October 9 that federal cuts and changes to food benefits are driving record need in many communities. The pressure comes as participation in SNAP, the federal food-stamp program, fell from about 42 million people in July 2025 to about 37 million in April 2026, according to preliminary Agriculture Department data, after the budget law President Trump signed in July 2025 expanded its work requirements. Supporters of the law say the decline reflects people leaving aid for work and ineligible people leaving the rolls; critics say eligible people are losing help. No national count of food bank visits exists to settle the question.
What food banks report
The reports are local. In central Virginia, the Feed More food bank's chief executive, Dennis Hatchett, told PBS NewsHour that pantry visits had risen 20 percent, Food World News reported; "Can food banks be a substitution for SNAP? I'd have to tell you, absolutely not," he said. In Maine, one food bank has begun limiting visits and rationing milk, meat and produce, and an Oregon food bank is spending more than ever on diesel to move food, NBC News reported. In Pennsylvania, state funding has covered about a quarter of the drop in federal food, the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank said, and more than half of that state aid was temporary; the food bank called for "reinvestment at the federal level in key nutrition assistance programs like SNAP and TEFAP." Under The Emergency Food Assistance Program, the Agriculture Department buys food from American producers and ships it to food banks. The department has continued some purchases: in February it announced plans to buy up to $263 million in dairy and other farm products for food banks and nutrition programs, under its Section 32 purchasing authority.
Why SNAP enrollment fell
The 2025 law extended SNAP work requirements to adults up to age 64 and to parents of children 14 and older, and began shifting more of the program's administrative costs to states on October 1. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning research group that opposed the cuts, said participation in June 2026 was the lowest since August 2009, "even though there is no sign that the decline is due primarily to an improving economy." Romina Boccia and Tyler Turman of the libertarian Cato Institute, whose analysts backed the changes, argued in an August commentary that the decline reflects the end of pandemic-era expansions, people moving into jobs and ineligible participants leaving: "Judge the success of OBBBA's SNAP reforms, and all welfare programs, by how many people move out of welfare and into self-sufficiency, not by how many are kept on it." Federal data do not yet show how many people left because they found work, how many were cut off over paperwork or new rules, and how many remain eligible but stopped enrolling, Food World News noted, and the newest national figures are preliminary.
People who lost SNAP can check their state agency's notice for the reason; some cutoffs can be reversed by submitting missing documents or reporting work hours. Local food banks can be found through state food bank networks.
This article reflects reporting through Friday, October 30, 2026. Sources: Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, 2026 Food Insecurity in Pennsylvania; NBC News, October 9; Food World News, October 21, citing USDA data, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Cato Institute and PBS NewsHour; Bloomberg Government, October 29; USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, February 19 announcement.
