Food banks brace for surge in demand as SNAP benefits face potential cuts

SPOKANE, Wash. — The shelves at food pantries across the Inland Northwest are bare, and they turn to places like 2nd Harvest and Northwest Harvest to restock them. But these food distributors’ warehouses are running low as well, and they say right now, there’s not enough food to go around.

Northwest Harvest operates a network of about 375 food pantries across Washington, including about 40 in the Spokane area.

“Across the board, we’re hearing longer lines and less food available,” said Matt Ryan from Northwest Harvest.

Second Harvest has been getting calls from food banks all over needing more food. All of the food at their warehouse is already earmarked to go to food banks all across the region.

“Sadly, there’s a line of other partners who are already waiting,” said Eric Williams from 2nd Harvest. “Right now it’s going out faster than it’s coming in.”

Both distributors say they are doing everything they can to help. At 2nd Harvest, Williams said multiple departments are working to address the shortage.

“The ones who work on the food sourcing, the folks who work on the financial side, the philanthropy side, are reaching out to everybody they can,” Williams said.

But they warn it won’t be enough to help everyone who could lose their SNAP benefits. Northwest Harvest has increased its food purchasing budget by $1 million and doubled its purchasing budget for November, but Ryan said that’s not the solution.

“For every one meal that the emergency food system provides, SNAP provides nine meals,” Ryan said.

At 2nd Harvest, the last of this week’s deliveries are being packed up and shipped out. Williams said this weekend is full of uncertainty as they prepare for potential changes.

“We got to just keep pedaling as fast as we can to get the food in. We can’t anticipate that there might be a one day pause in the pause,” Williams said.

Williams said donations of food and money of any amount will help fill this growing need.