Inflation, Federal Program Cuts Driving Demand at Local Food Banks and Pantries
A budget amendment being considered in the Virginia General Assembly would help get more fresh produce from local farms into the network.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Over the past year, Ryan Ragsdale, executive director of Love Thy Neighbor food pantry, has noticed a change in the pantry’s clientele—a change reflected in a conversation he had with some first-time shoppers earlier this month.
“A couple came in, and it was their first time,” Ragsdale said. “The wife said to me, ‘We make good money. I feel like we shouldn’t be here, but we’re struggling to make ends meet.’”
Ragsdale assured the couple that they are not alone.
“Good money does not go as far as it used to,” he told them.
Demand at the King George pantry has remained high but steady since 2023, with about 610 households shopping there every month, Ragsdale said. Yet in the past year, “I’ve noticed more professionals coming in—nurses, teachers, school counselors, people with good, steady jobs.”
Love Thy Neighbor opened in 2012 and for much of its history, the pantry was open for food distribution once a month. That changed to once per week in 2021 after the pantry joined the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank’s network during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were open two hours per week every Sunday, and those hours filled up, so we went to three hours and then four hours,” Ragsdale said. “Then we decided to open Thursday nights, and those hours filled up, so now we’re open Saturday morning as well.”
Between 2021 and 2023, demand at Love Thy Neighbor grew by a factor of 10, Ragsdale said.
He was able to reassure the couple who felt they didn’t belong that they were in exactly the right place.
“They provide their income as part of seeing if they qualify for TEFAP [the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s emergency food assistance program], and this family easily qualified,” Ragsdale said. “So I just let them know, ‘You are exactly in the economic zone that the government is expecting to give some assistance to.’”
And, he added, “Everyone is welcome here and everyone is respected. Most of our volunteers are also shoppers, because we’re all struggling to get along here.”
Right now, Ragsdale said, it’s mostly inflation—the cost of gas and groceries—that’s driving demand at Love Thy Neighbor and other food pantries and food banks across the state.
“But friends who work for [the Department of Social Services] are warning me that more folks are coming” due to cuts to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program approved as part of HR 1, the Congressional budget reconciliation bill, he said.
HR 1 cuts funding for SNAP by $186 billion over 10 years, a 20% cut. Between July 2025, when the bill was enacted, and December 2025, there was an 11.7% drop in SNAP participation in Virginia, according to state and USDA data compiled by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research and policy institute.
“SNAP provides nine meals for every one meal food pantries provide,” Ragsdale said. “That means we have to increase our capacity by double if we want to make up for that shortfall.”
“So there’s a definite risk of widespread hunger if those policies don’t get changed,” he continued. “I’m a little concerned that it’s going to get scary before it gets better.”
A Potential State Funding Solution
A budget amendment under consideration in the Virginia General Assembly could help the state’s food banks and pantries try to meet some of the increased demand, according to Eddie Oliver, executive director of the Virginia Federation of Food Banks.
The state budget approved by the House of Delegates includes a $4 million increase to the Virginia Agricultural Food Assistance Program. That program, which currently receives about $1.6 million, supports two initiatives—Virginia Fresh Match, which allows SNAP participants to double their food dollars at farmers markets; and Farms to Food Banks, which allows food banks and pantries to buy from local growers and producers.
This $4 million increase is not in the state Senate’s budget.
“They’re in the middle of working that out between the two sides right now,” Oliver said. “We’re trying to ensure that $4 million is in the final budget.”
Oliver said the increase in support for food banks is needed because of recent federal cuts over the past year.
“We had about $10 million canceled by the USDA last year,” he said. “And there’s an increase in demand on top of what we expect to be higher need from SNAP cuts and higher food prices this year.”
Oliver said the seven food banks in Virginia have worked to develop and grow sourcing relationships with the state’s growers.
For example, they partner with apple orchards in the Shenandoah Valley to buy excess fruit, thereby ensuring growers don’t lose money on their product, and with the Warrenton-based food hub 4P Foods, which aggregates products from Virginia and mid-Atlantic farmers.
Like Ragsdale, Oliver anticipates that demand at the state’s food banks and pantries is going to grow.
“We had the government shutdown, which spiked demand, and then we’ve seen grocery store inflation start to go up again, and then the supply shocks that we’re anticipating this year from the higher gas prices—all of this is cutting into families’ budgets,” Oliver said. “We’re really concerned that it’s going to get even worse.”
He hopes legislators will support what he sees as “a really elegant solution to both support small local Virginia farms and get healthy food to people who need it.”
Meanwhile, members of the community can support local pantries like Love Thy Neighbor, and larger food banks, by donating supplies and funds.
Find out how to get help from, or give help to, Love Thy Neighbor here.
This article was updated at 8 a.m. on April 14 to clarify open hours and growth at Love Thy Neighbor.
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Another factor to consider is that approximately 20% to 30% of the world's fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz. Since the strait keeps closing, the cost of fertilizer (like the cost of oil) is much higher, which will almost certainly affect the spring planting, which will in turn impact food prices, driving them even higher. :(