Demand Rises at Area Food Pantries
By Elizabeth Bailey
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its Household Food Security report at the end of 2025, it reported that 13.7 million U.S. households were food insecure in 2024, the highest in almost a decade. The agency made that end-of-year report its last stating that such reports were redundant, costly and did nothing more than “fear monger,” and were no longer needed. Yet ending a report does not mean that hunger in America, or in Northwest Corner, no longer exists. In fact, food pantries throughout the region say the opposite is true.
“There has been a surge in the number of families coming to the pantry in the last few weeks,” said Lynn Deasy, Executive Director of Norfolk’s Food Pantry. “At the beginning of this year, we were getting 26 families coming to the pantry per week, in June [it was] 45 families per week and [it was] 60 families per week at the end of September.”
The number of families registering with the pantry is also on the increase. Deasy said the number of new families has increased 38 per cent over last year. The age of those being served has also shifted: there are now 87 individuals under 20 and another 105 individuals in in the 20-to 50-year-old range. “We’ve never had that many kids, or that many working families,” she said, adding that number of working families could be higher if the pantry hours were extended.
There is ample reason for the increase in traffic. By the end of September, food prices had increased 2.5 per cent from the year before, with food consumed at homew up 1.8 percent and food eaten away from home 3.5 percent, according to the USDA. Moreover, families with modest incomes spend a higher percentage of their pre-tax income on food—it is 30 percent or more for earners in the lowest 20 percent of households. By contrast, people in the upper quintile spend seven percent.
Just ask Karen Thomas, executive director of Connecticut’s largest food bank, Friendly Hands Food Bank in Torrington. It is housed in an 11,000-square foot-space that opened last November thanks to a $2.1 million dollar state grant. “It looks like a Big Y,” says Thomas, but differs from one of New England’s favorite supermarket chains.
Clients, who register by showing a Connecticut ID with a photo, are given a shopping cart that they can fill with groceries worth anywhere between $150 and $200. In September, says Thomas, Friendly Hands fed 14,953 mouths. “Last year it was something between 10,500 and 11,000 per month,” she said. Thomas cited inflation, cuts in SNAP and broader societal trends as factors. “Twenty years ago we were a different society with a livable wage. I was raised by a single mother, and we ate a lot of baked potatoes,” says Thomas. “But you could get a mortgage and buy a $10,000 house. Now the food dollar is having to be stretched to cover rent, fuel and everything else.”
SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly food stamps. Since the enactment of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in July 2025, more than 5.5 million people have lost benefits across the U.S. and benefits will continue to shrink. According to federal government’s own calculations, the new rule will lead to a $16.9 billion reduction in federal spending for SNAP over the next five years, or $3.4 billion annually. Although Connecticut has offered $300 grocery cards to individuals who have lost benefits because of new work or eligibility requirements, that only goes so far. “If current trends continue, when the SNAP cuts are phased in, we could be serving 100 people per week,” says Deasy.
The volume of activity at some pantries has been affected by other factors, including the in-creased price of gasoline and fears of immigra-tion enforcement, according to Addison Stone, Executive Director of the Corner Food Pantry in Lakeville. The numbers of families access-ing the pantry has risen steadily over the past several years. For example, the pantry served more than 6,200 families in 2024 and saw that number grow to nearly 7,800 in 2025—a 25 percent increase. The picture for 2026 has been more complex with numbers fluctuating from week to week. “After talking with some of the families, some of whom come from far away, we found that they were having trouble finding gas money. Others were staying away because of a fear of ICE,” he said.
The Corner Food Pantry operates somewhat differently from the pantries in Norfolk and Torrington. Open on Fridays and Saturdays, it serves individuals from New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and requires no identification. Clients drive through the parking lot of St. Mary’s Church where volunteers hand them a checklist of possible food items for the week. The items are purchased with monetary contributions to the pantry, contributed by community members or donated by local forms including Adamah Farm, the Hotchkiss Farm and Ten-Mile Foundation Farm. More volunteers bring the filled shopping bags to drivers.
In Norfolk, clients are able to choose the provisions that their families need from behind a counter at the pantry in Battell Chapel. Non-perishables are displayed on racks, while perishables are housed in a large refrigerator. Gently used clothes are stacked and hung on racks in a room down the hall, another magnet for those in need.
Helping for the Holidays
For Thanksgiving, consider donating a 12- to 22-pound turkey (fresh or frozen) or make a financial contribu-tion to buy all the other food for the basket—that is, stuffing, potatoes, onions, carrots, canned vegetables and pies. Checks can be made out to the Norfolk Food Pantry and dropped off at the church office or mailed to P.O. Box 582, Norfolk. At Christmas, consider signing up for the Angel Tree. The online list of re-quests from children will be online in mid-November at https://norfolkucc.org/norfolk-food-pantry/