Governor Shapiro Sends $5 Million in Emergency Funds to PA Food Banks

Millions of Pennsylvanians don’t know how they are going to feed their families this month due to the federal government shutdown and the lapse of $366 million in monthly SNAP benefits. Many of these families will now turn to the charitable food network for the very first time, resulting in an unprecedented surge in need.

On Friday, October 31, Governor Shapiro announced $5 million in emergency relief to be distributed to food banks through the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System (PASS). PASS, with a decade of proven success, provides funds to food banks to purchase fresh produce, meat, dairy, and other agricultural products from Pennsylvania farmers.

Every cent of the $5 million will be used for food purchases and will be distributed using the state food formula to ensure equitable distribution across all sixty-seven Pennsylvania counties to get food to families as quickly as possible.

Now is the time for the entire charitable food network to come together and focus on how to best serve as many neighbors as we can in every corner of the Commonwealth. Feeding Pennsylvania is committed to ensuring these funds help as many neighbors as possible during this time of crisis, and we are grateful to our member food banks, affiliate food banks, partner agencies, and community and government partners for working together to meet this moment.

Our network of food banks and pantries is designed to step up for our communities during times like these, but we can’t do it alone. This emergency funding will help food banks respond to this crisis and provide more of the healthy, nutritious food that families need to thrive.

Feeding Pennsylvania is grateful to the Shapiro administration for recognizing the scale and gravity of this situation and acting quickly to help inject much needed funds for food into the charitable food network.

This aid could not come at a more critical time. The charitable food network is facing a perfect storm of compounding challenges. The need is steadily rising, with food insecurity in Pennsylvania increasing over 40% in the last two years. Yet our resources are diminishing. In the past nine months, food banks have lost $13 million of federal funding for local food purchases and $6 million worth of canceled TEFAP food deliveries. At the same time, our food banks have continued to serve their communities without PASS and State Food Purchase Program (SFPP) funds due to the state budget impasse.

It’s in this climate that the federal government shutdown comes along, with federal employees and contractors being furloughed and going without paychecks, and now, for the first time in the program’s 40-year history, a lapse in the payment of SNAP benefits.

This infusion of PASS funds will provide immediate relief for food banks and families struggling to make ends meet without SNAP, but it doesn’t negate the long-term need for a state budget that fully funds PASS and SFPP.

For every meal the charitable food network provides, SNAP provides 9. While this $5 million in emergency funding is a desperately needed lifeline for the charitable food network, it will not be enough to fully fill the SNAP gap.

We need the federal government to reopen with a budget that fully funds critical nutrition programs and protects affordable healthcare. Until that happens, we need the administration to use all the tools available to them to fund SNAP benefits and ensure Americans can feed their families.

Real families are being forced to make impossible choices between paying their rent, affording their medications, or buying groceries.  We can and must do better for our neighbors.