In an effort to ensure that families around the region could still feed themselves amid the loss of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits earlier this month, United Way of the Franklin & Hampshire Region, United Way of North Central Massachusetts and LifePath teamed up to raise more than $200,000 to support food pantries through the United Response Fund.
“A lot of the local pantries, even post the government reopening, burned through a lot of cash, increasing their output in terms of food and the amount they were purchasing. We’re still focused on local pantries, food security-based organizations, and trying to help them kind of recoup some of what was spent out over the previous few weeks,” United Way of the Franklin & Hampshire Region Executive Director Geoff Naunheim said. “If we do continue to get money in this fund, we’ll pivot for more long-term strategies.”
The United Response Fund was created by the 13 United Ways of Massachusetts in partnership with the state’s Anti-Hunger Task Force.
“This was really a rapid deployment,” Naunheim continued. “This was really destabilizing for a lot of families locally. You know, missing a week of SNAP support is a pretty big deal, and that has cascading effects.”
“The interruption to SNAP assistance has exacerbated an already intractable problem of food access for our most vulnerable friends and neighbors,” Kory Eng, president and CEO of United Way of North Central Massachusetts, said in a statement.
The disruption to SNAP benefits impacted more than 16% of the total population in Franklin County and an estimated 8,500 people in the North Quabbin region, the majority of whom are children, older adults and people with disabilities, Naunheim said.
In Franklin County, the Mary Lyon Foundation, the Franklin County Community Meals Program’s Orange Food Pantry, Stone Soup Cafe and the Montague Food Security and Sustainability Coalition all benefited from the funding.
Even though the federal government shutdown ended on Nov. 13, leading to the reinstatement of SNAP benefits, Naunheim said the need for support continues.
Citing a report released in June by Mass General Brigham and the Greater Boston Food Bank, Naunheim added that more than half of households in Franklin County are food insecure. With higher costs for housing, utilities and other day-to-day necessities, fewer households can afford nutritious food, he noted.
“The price of housing has gone up, the price of energy has gone up and the price of food has certainly gone up,” he said. “Certain things are taking up more space in people’s budgets, and it’s disproportionately impacting their ability to purchase healthy and nutritious food.”
Alongside United Way’s efforts, LifePath contributed $50,000 of interest earned from its investments to support urgent, local food insecurity, including the nonprofit’s home-delivered meals program. LifePath provided more than 186,000 meals last year as the Franklin County and North Quabbin Meals on Wheels provider.
LifePath Executive Director Gary Yuhas echoed Naunheim’s remarks, explaining that since LifePath’s contribution was provided from interest rates, local banks also played a role in the nonprofit’s ability to give back.
“SNAP alone isn’t enough for some folks, given the greater context of increased inflationary pressures for food, for heating oil, for gasoline, all those things, coupled with the fact that there’s currently no heating assistance money for this season that’s already started,” Yuhas said. “Food insecurity is only going to get worse, and this was a way for us to try to support the current crisis, but also to try to draw awareness to this problem and to try to encourage other folks to give what they can to sort of support both the current crisis and the ongoing challenge.”
Other key partners include the Community Foundations of Western Massachusetts and North Central Massachusetts, which each committed $25,000 to the United Response Fund.
To support the United Response Fund, residents can donate at uw-fh.org or uwncm.org. Donations that come into the local United Ways will be earmarked specifically for this urgent food security purpose. Residents can also support LifePath’s Meals on Wheels program by going to lifepathma.org.