BOSTON — November is peak season for food banks and pantries — in a normal year. But this year, since SNAP food assistance has lapsed for 42 million Americans, the pressure on pantries is next-level.
"Welcome to the madness," says Operations Manager Elaina Schreckenberger, at the ABCD Allston/Brighton Neighborhood Opportunity Center Food Pantry, where staff are scrambling to keep up with the steady flow of people at the front door.
"It's Turkey Day, so it's chaotic," she says. Staff at the Action for Boston Community Development pantry are handing out scores of frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving, though some of the people lined up here say they're stretched so thin on food, they might end up eating their holiday dinner before the holiday.
"Maybe," says Yenifer Burgos. "I have four kids."
Wanda Concepcion, who can't work because of a disability, is also worried about her next meal.
"I don't know how to survive," she says. "I don't know how I'm going to do it. I'm trying my best."
As anxiety and demand have been mounting, staff at the ABCD pantry are already having to tell some people it's a two-week wait to get food.
"It's painful when someone comes in and we have to say, 'I just don't have anything for you today,' " says the pantry's client advocate, Juliet Smith. "We've never had to do that before. Never."
Food banks had already taken a hit earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Agriculture halted some $500 million in food deliveries. Pantries took another hit when the federal government shut down last month and many unpaid federal workers added to the demand for assistance. Now, on top of it all, the lapse in SNAP benefits this month is driving some to the breaking point.
"This is a totally different curveball," says Andrea Cook, executive director of the Johnston Partnership, which runs a small pantry outside Des Moines, Iowa.
Every November, Cook says, her whole office is stacked high with cans and boxes of food. But this year, food is moving out at least as fast as it's coming in.
"We've broken records every day we've been open so far in November, and yesterday was again our highest day we ever had," she says.
To help manage the rush, they're counting on volunteers, including board members. "They're unloading food, sorting donations, they're answering phones, making deliveries and doing the things that our staff just doesn't have time to do right now." Cook says.
"I would say the whole system is on the brink right now," says Erin McAleer, who is president and CEO of Project Bread, a Massachusetts-based anti-hunger organization that also provides direct assistance programs.
Project Bread's FoodSource Hotline, which refers people to places offering free food, has been getting four times its usual calls, McAleer says. And sometimes, there are no good answers.
"Just yesterday, some pantries reached out and said, 'We can't take any more people, so please slow down referrals. We can't feed everybody.' So I would say the levees are already starting to break," McAleer says.
Several state and local governments have been stepping in to help fill funding shortfalls for food banks and pantries. New York, for example, declared a state of emergency and is sending $65 million to food banks and pantries. And California committed $80 million, plus National Guard resources to help with distribution.
Private donations are also up, says David Finke, CEO of Jewish Family and Career Services, an organization in Louisville, Ky., that serves people of all religions and backgrounds.
It's enormously helpful, Finke says, but SNAP provides roughly nine times the volume of food assistance as the entire network of the nation's nonprofit food banks, and even the most generous gifts cannot make up for SNAP reductions or delays.
"I'll just give you a quick example. On Monday, almost 600 pounds of food was donated to us. ... And that sounds great, except that we gave out almost 1,000 pounds of food," Finke says. "This is not sustainable."
Finke says he knows three nonprofits that expect to soon be unable to make payroll.
Jewish Family and Career Services is more financially stable, but Finke says he does worry that directing so much of his agency's resources to the food crisis might end up jeopardizing some of the other important services they offer, like helping people get jobs or providing family and individual therapy.
"What services are we able to provide? What are we not able to provide? I don't have an answer to that yet," he says. "So that sort of adds to the fear and anxiety."
And the frustration, which is already starting to show.
"At some point, you cannot count on the community to take over for what should be a government program," says Judith Ingram, director of NW Community Food in Washington, D.C.
"We are nowhere close to shutting down, but at some point when the rubber meets the road, how much longer can a [private nonprofit organization] fill this need."
Sarah Saadian, a senior vice president with the National Council of Nonprofits, put it more bluntly.
"Food banks are part of the puzzle," she said, adding, "But they couldn't possibly make up for the failure of the federal government."
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