At 7:00 a.m., a line has already formed on Center Street around the corner from the First Churches of Northampton, pale light falling on its steeple. Minutes later, the doors swing open to a long, high-ceilinged hallway, and the procession shuffles towards a dining room furnished with folding tables and chairs.
At 8:00 a.m., a new queue forms: the first batches of food are passed through the kitchen service windows, staffed by apron-clad volunteers. Scrambled eggs, diced potatoes and grilled vegetables fill plates as chatter fills the room. Servers exchange familiar hellos with longtime patrons as tables and chairs are scraped together. This is “The Last Breakfast” — a collaborative effort among the First Churches and a local shelter to serve free, hot breakfast to anyone in need, every Friday morning. And the number of people who are in need, housed and unhoused alike, has been on a steady rise.
According to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, there are currently 124,000 people across Hampshire, Hampden, Berkshire, and Franklin counties who depend on some form of meal- or grocery-replacing food assistance in order to keep hunger at bay every month. Since the slashing of COVID-19 pandemic welfare programs, kitchens and pantries all across the region have reported a noticeable surge in patronage, some experiencing record-breaking highs. Now, further cuts to federal food assistance programs like The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) could drive those numbers up even more.
On July 4, Congress’ budget reconciliation bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump, poised to cut $200 billion from SNAP starting in October 2026, which will result in millions nationwide losing access to federal food aid.
“We try not to refer to it as the ‘big, beautiful bill’ because it’s not,” said Andrew Morehouse, the executive director at the food bank. “It’s not a bill anymore. Now, it’s the law of the land.”
Once called “food stamps,” SNAP works by putting monthly funds onto an Electronic Benefits Transfer card, which can be used to purchase groceries at any approved retailer, with different sized households receiving different amounts. In western Mass, one in six residents relies on SNAP to put food on the table, some of whom may already be feeling the effects of the new law.
“Immediately upon passage of the law, legally present asylees and refugees who were admitted through legal processes are no longer able to use or receive their SNAP benefits,” said Morehouse.
In addition, certain categories of SNAP beneficiaries are now required to attend 20 hours per week of volunteer or paid work in order to qualify. Previously, only adults 18 to 55 needed to meet that standard; now, the age ceiling has extended to 65, except for those who obtain a waiver for a disability. Similarly, adults who receive SNAP benefits and have children who are 14 and older must abide by those work standards.
The situation is dire enough as-is, according to food bank representatives, and the rollback of SNAP for some groups may force more people to their local food pantries or free meal sites.
“In October, we saw the highest number of people assisted by us and our agencies that we’ve ever seen in our history,” said Deb Ondo, the communications and engagement manager at the food bank. “Frankly, we live in a state that has a very high cost of living.”
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts does not directly provide food to clients; rather, representatives from around 200 agencies across the four counties pull into large loading bays at the food bank’s processing facility in Chicopee and fill their vehicles with hundreds of pounds of food every week. That food is then brought back to the individual agency, re-sorted and re-weighed, and cooked into a dish or handed to a patron in a grocery bag.
Their numbers tend to rise in the fall and winter as utility costs spike; people whose paychecks are already stretched thin must make sacrifices, missing a meal or skipping a grocery run in favor of paying a bill.
“It’s a confluence of place, you know. Sort of like the perfect storm of things that make it very difficult for many people,” said Ondo. “A lot of times the decisions are made not to purchase groceries because people just don’t have enough money left to do that.”
The Shoestring was not able to find patrons at food bank-supported programs who were willing to speak on the record for this article.
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At 11:30 a.m. down the street from The First Churches, another line trails up the side steps of St. John’s Episcopal Church, the home of Manna Community Kitchen. Founded as a small soup kitchen in the 1980s, it is now a full-fledged nonprofit that provides free meals, showers and wifi to the Northampton community. The kitchen is state-of-the-art, having been added during a 2019 renovation; steaming pans of food are set onto raised metal racks, an open flame burning beneath each tray to keep them hot. Food is available dine-in or to-go, but ice cream is only available to eat on-site in ceramic bowls. On rainy days, an open seat may be hard to find; on warmer ones, guests trickle outside to eat underneath a communal tent on the front lawn, some sitting in groups while others eat alone.
“We definitely are seeing a huge increase,” said Kaitlyn Ferrari, the development director at Manna. She began volunteering there during the pandemic with her kids, and since becoming a full-time employee has witnessed firsthand the rapidly swelling need for food assistance. On site at Manna, she said, “Today, for the first time, we actually felt like we might not have enough food.”
On a typical day early on in the pandemic, Manna served 60 meals to-go and delivered 20 more. Now, in 2025, they serve an average of 160 meals in-person, 155 individual deliveries and 90 deliveries to their partner organizations per day — an increase of over 300%.
“The cost of food has gone up so much, and it’s expected to just keep going up,” Ferrari said. “There are a lot of people still recovering from the pandemic, and there’s not as much funding as there used to be. The COVID relief funds, those are all out, but the need is greater.”
In 2020 and early 2021, the federal government expanded the social safety net in ways unprecedented since the 1960s in order to prevent the worst economic fallouts from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The New York Times estimated the government infused about $5 trillion into the economy during those years, with almost $2 trillion of that going directly to individuals via direct stimulus payments and expanded SNAP and unemployment benefits. A program that paid out child tax credits in monthly disbursements rather than lump sums during tax season reduced child poverty by 30% and gave Americans a taste of benefits common to most of the industrialized world.
But by 2024, almost all of those programs — and in Massachusetts, state subsidies to extend programs beyond their federal limits — had been allowed to expire. In 2023 and 2024, a total of 363,000 Massachusetts residents were dropped from MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, after a federal requirement not to disenroll current members expired, and SNAP funding flowing into the state dropped by $95 million. At the time, The Shoestring calculated this loss of SNAP benefits would be the equivalent of a 4% pay decrease for a minimum wage worker collecting the average benefit amount for the state.
“I, for one, thought that — being such an affluent country — we were smart enough to think that investing in families is good for our society,” said Morehouse. “It helps families raise kids who take care of elders, who represent 50% of SNAP recipients. And 75% of SNAP recipients are working, so why add this additional burden on them? Those who aren’t working, who are trying to get into the workforce, need a hand up to do so, not a hammer over them.”
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In February, the food bank received their first federal funding cut of the year: up to $440,000 worth of food deliveries were canceled by the United States Department of Agriculture, equating to about 185,000 pounds of food. This came from a $3.4 million reduction in emergency food allocations made by the Emergency Food Assistance Program. While the cancellation only represents around 1% of the food bank’s total distribution over a year, they are expecting more cuts to come. With SNAP cuts now posing an imminent threat to thousands of Massachusetts residents in need, food banks are on high alert.
“We’re hearing from folks in our community that there’s a lot of confusion,” said Morehouse, the executive director. “People are nervous and scared, so we’re anticipating increased demand.”
For U.S. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), protecting SNAP benefits and targeting drivers of food insecurity has been a top legislative priority. In March, he delivered a speech from the warehouse of a food pantry in Leominster called Ginny’s Helping Hand, nearly identical to the ones found at the Northampton and Amherst survival centers.
“Hunger in America is getting worse,” he said. “Food prices are sky high. And what has Donald Trump done to bring them down? Nothing. Not one thing… It’s a Republican betrayal of the middle class.”
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On April 1, McGovern introduced a bill to the House called the “Hunger Free Future Act” alongside representatives Shontel Brown (D-OH) and Jahana Haynes (D-CT), aimed at blocking any “backdoor” cuts to SNAP. Co-sponsored by 56 other house representatives, the bill specifically requires that any updates to the Thrifty Food Plan — a calculation of a generalized low-cost, high-nutrient diet used to set maximum SNAP benefit allotments — may not result in an increase in hunger for low-income households.
Now, with $230 billion in cuts on the horizon, Ondo said SNAP recipients could lose over a dollar per person per day, about 20% of their benefits. Currently, the average SNAP user receives about $6.40 a day.
Users of SNAP in Massachusetts are already dealing with reductions on the state level. The Massachusetts state legislature recently cut back the annual budget for the statewide Healthy Incentives Program, or HIP, an initiative pioneered in Springfield that pairs with SNAP in order to reimburse users for purchasing locally-grown produce. In previous years, the program was allotted $19 million from the state budget. Governor Maura Healey originally requested an additional $5 million in a FY 2025 budget proposal — however, the legislature ended up cutting the program back to $15 million.
In previous years, according to food bank representatives, a household of two would get $20 per month of extra purchasing for local foods and vegetables. A household of four would get $60, and over five would get $80. Now, every household only receives $20 in reimbursements.
HIP Advocacy Day is held every year by the Massachusetts Food System Collaborative, an event in which food justice advocates from all over the state flock to the Massachusetts State House to speak with their representatives about issues of food insecurity. This year it was held on March 13, attended by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ public policy team as well as select members from their community engagement team.
The community engagement team — spearheaded by food bank employee and activist Mark Olivares — is a group of community members from all four counties in western Massachusetts who have or are currently experiencing hunger. Their purpose is to bring their real and complex experiences with financial insecurity, lack of housing and food insecurity to the food bank’s attention.
“We really have an emphasis on transportation, housing and mental health,” said Olivares. “They all tie back into food in some way… If you’re dealing with something that is so overwhelming that you can’t get out of bed, you probably won’t be able to make a meal for your family or go to your local store or pantry. Then you start having health problems, and you might not be able to keep up with your job. Then it turns into, not being housed anywhere, and then maybe you don’t have money to get on a bus.”
Food activists, farmers and Massachusetts residents as a whole have come out in droves against the recent HIP cuts, and did the same when it became clear that SNAP was at risk. Following the food bank’s announcement in early spring 2025 that the program was in Republican crosshairs, over 900 people reached out to their local politicians through the food bank’s “Contact Your Legislator” tool.
Anonymized for safety purposes on behalf of the food bank, one testimony from a person on SNAP and social security read, “I am living on pasta because it is the cheapest and lasts the longest, but I’m sick of it. I miss real food. If you cut this program I don’t know if I will be able to afford even that. This world is such a mess.”
Another, from a director of a food pantry in western Massachusetts, urged the federal government not to cut SNAP benefits to those who are in need.
“We are getting overwhelmed with the cost of food,” it read. “I ask you to reconsider this cut — actually, I’m begging.”
One person wrote only one sentence: “Without my meager stipend of food stamps I would probably die.”
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For those needing to replace meals in Hampshire County, dinner is the hardest to come by. On Wednesday nights, Manna serves food from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. A 45-minute bus ride away in Amherst, a program run by the Center for Human Development called “Not Bread Alone” serves food Wednesdays and Sundays on the lower level of the First Congregational Church, supported by a rotating cast of seasoned volunteers and college students. The team, led by Bob Stover, pumps out 80 meals in just two hours.
Rather than buffet-style food service, Not Bread Alone operates more like a restaurant. Chicken pot-pie is taken straight from the stove and put on a rolling metal cart, already decorated with steamed vegetables, flaky bread rolls and perfectly-piped deviled eggs. A volunteer wheels the cart out into the dining room, where long paper-cloth-covered tables are pushed together, surrounded by people. A friendly hum of chatter makes the large rec room feel smaller, almost like private dining. No one sits alone; many are familiar faces, but some are newer and nervous. It can be challenging, coming into an intimate place like this as a stranger — but Stover welcomes all with open arms.
“There’s no anger today,” he said on a recent Sunday. “We rarely have anger, but we definitely don’t today. See how everyone is sitting together, like a family — that’s what we like to see.”
Even with the efforts of every kitchen, shelter and pantry in the region, there are not enough combined free meal programs to consistently provide a single person facing hunger — let alone all — with three nutritious meals seven days a week.
In the days before the passage of the federal budget reconciliation bill, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts put out an “urgent call-to-action” pressing members of the House to vote against the drastic cuts. SNAP, the statement read, provides nine times more meals to western Mass residents than the food bank does.
With the budget cuts now going into effect over the next year and a half, the day when the food bank is officially stretched beyond capacity may be on the horizon.
“The food bank can’t replace SNAP,” said Ondo. “All the food banks combined in this country could not replace SNAP. ”