Government Cuts, Local Impact: Helping Harvest Working to Overcome Funding Cuts and Future Uncertainties  

by Susan Shelly McGovern

Maria has always worked hard to make sure her children have enough food and other necessities. There seldom was extra, but they always had enough.

When Maria, of Reading, was diagnosed earlier this year with Stage 5 kidney disease, however, the single mother didn’t know what to do. Unable to work, faced with medical bills and receiving only 60% of her wages through short-term disability insurance, having enough food for her family was suddenly a very frightening uncertainty.

Maria and her children are by no means alone. Food insecurity has increased dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Pennsylvania, more than 1.7 million people – including one in six children – are at risk for hunger, according to Feeding America, a nonprofit organization that operates more than 200 food banks across the United States.

Fortunately, Maria reached out and was able to secure immediate assistance from Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank, a community resource serving Berks and Schuylkill counties. That help has given her family access to adequate food supplies as they wait for their application for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to be processed and, hopefully, approved.

But that ability to provide immediate and adequate aid for those in need is becoming increasingly difficult, according to Jay Worrall, president of Helping Harvest and board chair of Feeding Pennsylvania, an organization that promotes food banks within the state and assists them in obtaining necessary resources and support.

Cuts in federal funding for food distribution programs made earlier this year are straining the ability of food banks across the state and nation to continue supplying resources to those most in need.

Those cuts, coupled with stalled state funding caused by Pennsylvania’s ongoing budget impasse and impending cuts to SNAP, are resulting in trying times for Helping Harvest, Worrall said.

SNAP benefits could be reduced by as much as $11 million in Schuylkill County and up to $26.8 million in Berks, according to Worrall, affecting thousands of families. In addition, it is unclear whether the recent shutdown of the federal government, which was still underway at the time this article was written, might have long-reaching implications for the future of Helping Harvest.

“Demand for our services continues to increase, but we’re left with fewer resources to meet those needs. The worst of the SNAP cuts haven’t even taken place yet, but people are anticipating them and already looking to us for extra help. It’s the perfect storm and it’s making our work very difficult,” Worrall explained.

Helping Harvest recently announced cuts to some of its programs in Schuylkill County, starting in November. The food bank will stop providing food to about a dozen pantry and mobile market sites, a move Worrall attributed to federal funding cuts and the state’s budget impasse.

“We have more demand and less food,” Worrall said, during a recent interview with the Pottsville Republican Herald. “We truly wish this change was not necessary, but our hand has been forced.”

Although the food pantry has made some organizational changes and altered the way it processes and distributes food to try to make up the shortfalls it’s experiencing, it is unable to keep up with decreased funding and increasing demand.

“We’re working to close that gap, but we’re not going to make up $3 million in one year,” Worrall said. “We’re going to have very serious challenges to overcome.”

While the future of funding for Helping Harvest and other food banks is uncertain, Worrall is looking forward and trying to remain optimistic.

He pointed to the potential of Helping Harvest’s Community Kitchen that opened in August in downtown Reading, explaining that the kitchen makes it possible for large-scale food donations to be repurposed into thousands of individual meals for people in Berks and Schuylkill counties.

“That’s a real help in getting meals out to people who need them,” Worrall said. “It’s wonderful how the community came together to support the Community Kitchen and make that possible.”

In these very uncertain times, Worrall will continue to look to the Berks and Schuylkill communities for support. It is urgent, he said, that the needs of everyone at risk for hunger – especially children – are addressed and met.

“Think what it would be like to not have enough food for your kids,” Worrall said. “I can’t imagine that, and I don’t want anyone else to have to, either. We’re going to need all the help we can get, but Helping Harvest will continue to serve the people who need us the most.”