To the Editor:
As food insecurity continues to rise across our community, the situation is about to become much worse. The administration has announced it will terminate the Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program in October 2025, which means a loss of funding that enabled the purchase of fresh, locally sourced foods for our neighbors in need.
This impact will be felt by local farmers, producers and aggregators such as the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, who disperse food to local pantries. Additionally, the administration is considering cutting SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits and requiring states to provide some portion of those benefits.
A recent analysis by the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities concluded that if states were required to bear even a small portion of SNAP payments, it would result in a significant loss of benefits for recipients. The net result of these changes will mean a dramatic increase in food insecurity in our area, and much less food resources to meet the need.
This has real consequences for our community. The Cape May Community Food Closet has experienced a 205% increase in the number of food-insecure neighbors we’ve serve since 2022, and the numbers are continuing to grow. We rely heavily on our partners at The Community Food Bank to supply us with fresh produce, proteins and dry and canned goods.
As the funding dries up for USDA products, we will have less food from the Community Food Bank for our neighbors, which means we will need to resort to increasing private donations to fill the gap to just meet minimum requirements. The families this will hurt are our neighbors; many are the working poor, or senior citizens living entirely on Social Security, and many are veterans. They are all dealing with persistent inflation, along with exploding housing and medical costs, making it difficult to purchase nutritious foods.
The time to act is now. Please contact your local elected federal representative, Jeff Van Drew (202-224-3121), Cory Booker (202-224-3224) and Andy Kim (202-224-4744), and urge them to restore Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program funding and to keep SNAP funding at the current federal levels. And of course, please consider donating to your local food pantry.
Nancy Hanslowe, Executive Director
Cape May Community Food Closet
