Panelists engage in discussion on Nov. 14, 2025 at MontCo Anti-Hunger Network’s 2025 Hunger Action Summit at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell. (Rachel Ravina – MediaNews Group).
Local nonprofits have long been in the trenches fighting to ensure people across Montgomery County have access to food.
At the 2025 Hunger Action Summit, hosted by the MontCo Anti-Hunger Network, dozens of people across the social services sector earlier this month came together as rates of hunger continue to rise.
Food insecurity concerns were exacerbated during the 43-day-long federal government shutdown, which threatened assistance for many who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program dollars.
“The last two weeks have been basically like fighting Mike Tyson with your hands behind your back and on my knees, but we’ve gotten through it together,” said Eli Wenger, director of operations for Martha’s Choice Marketplace and Community Farm in Norristown.
It’s been a difficult year as the cost of living crisis leaves families across the county faced with numerous expenses ranging from food to housing.
“It’s been one hit after another, and so the food SNAP issue is just the latest in efforts to put people down, knock them down without very much to raise them up, except for hope and all of the good, amazing work that the nonprofit sector is doing, like these food pantries that are here,” Mindy Bartscherer, president of MontCo Anti-Hunger Network’s executive committee, told MediaNews Group.
Nearly 42 million people across the nation rely on SNAP benefits, including some 63,000 individuals in Montgomery County. The fear and concern associated with finding food took its toll even after the government reopened.
“The shutdown … was an acute hunger crisis on top of a chronic hunger crisis that we’ve already been dealing with. Now we’re coming to the end of that acute crisis, but I still want to be really clear: Our neighbors are still facing a hunger crisis,” said Callie Perrone, governmental affairs manager with the Philadelphia-based Philabundance.
MontCo Anti-Hunger Network Executive Director Shannon Isaacs agreed.
“This is an incredibly challenging time. Food pantries, food banks and free meal providers play an absolutely critical social role, providing life saving support, no matter what, and no matter if the federal government is your help or not,” Isaacs said.
The Ambler-based nonprofit organization has 73 food pantries under its umbrella in its battle to address food insecurity locally. It receives around $200,000 in federal funding each year from Montgomery County.
“What we’re seeing from the pantries is a tremendous increase in the folks who are coming for food. Everyone’s scared and nervous, and the food SNAP issue has been horrible, and people need food, and they’re trying to get it any way that they can. That’s why the food pantry network is so important,” Bartscherer said.
Isaacs thanked attendees for their “leadership” and “compassion,” as she underscored “how much of a difference all of you are making in people’s lives.” The Nov. 14 conference provided a gathering space as speakers stressed the importance of maintaining morale among volunteers and nonprofit organizations as families continue to seek services across the county.
“I’m hopeful, in spite of everything that’s going on, that we can continue to do great work together, focus on people, and give people food, and help them survive and find their own path in life with all the support they need,” Wenger said.
The role food pantries play has been on display as around 85,000 people reportedly experienced food insecurity in Montgomery County in 2023, according to Feeding America.
“So over the past several years, I feel like we’ve seen a really unmistakable pattern, and that is that food banks are operating as core community infrastructure that when everything else is closed, you can count on the food bank to still be open,” said Jenkintown Food Cupboard Executive Director Nicolino Ellis. “That’s something that has been the case all along, but … we need to do [a] better job of recognizing and operating as if we are core infrastructure and making sure that from the public and private sectors, we have the type of infrastructure and investment that is deserved for an essential services group just like our own.”
Others in the nonprofit space emphasized the loss in federal funds impacted food supplies. observed how cuts to emergency food assistance programs could dramatically impact food supplies. Around 50 percent of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s The Emergency Food Assistance Program funds –which according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report, would typically provide $500 million to food pantries in the U.S. each year– was paused earlier this year.
Leveraging existing partnerships, forging new ones and adapting to changing conditions couldn’t be understated, as Family Promise of Montgomery County PA Food Pantry Manager LaToya Williams observed.
“I saw how a significant change was happening to our government funded food, and how we should be able to pivot. So we largely rely on donations from our community. So we lean on our congregations, our faith community, to help us meet the gap of serving our neighbors,” Williams said.
Williams found the clientele of the food pantry based in Roslyn wanted variety and produce selection. Working with Philabundance’s Retail Rescue and tapping into a congregation network allowed for more participation from volunteers and contributions, Williams said.
“So we were able to deliver our mission to a larger population within Montgomery County,” she said.
Mary Ann Lynch, executive director of The Open Link in Pennsburg, too emphasized the crucial role outreach can play to create an open dialogue with community members to help strained pantries.
“The community actually wants to help,” Lynch said, observing people have felt “lost.” Over the last few years, Lynch said she learned “they didn’t know how to get plugged in” in order to assist those in need and find a “way to make a difference.”
Community members stepped up in recent weeks as food pantries across the region were inundated with donations to help those in need. A number of grassroots drives were organized, including on Election Day when voters could drop off food donations on their way to the polls.
“I think everybody’s starting to realize that external forces aren’t going to save us and could potentially harm us. So let’s turn to each other,” Lynch said. “Let’s turn to our community—whether it’s our community of pantries, or our community at large, our faith community, the people who are around us—because if you know your neighbor is struggling, it’s much harder to turn a blind eye.”
