While many families are gearing up for their holiday feasts, a large number of Massachusetts residents are struggling to put food on the table. Amid unusually high prices and the conclusion of many pandemic-era supports, local food banks and survival centers are being met with greater need than ever before.

According to the Greater Boston Food Bank, about 1.9 million adults, or 34% of the state’s households, reported experiencing food insecurity in 2023. Closer to home, a study in 2023 conducted by Mass General Brigham and the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts found that 41% of western Massachusetts households were struggling with food insecurity, and over the past year, local organizations battling hunger say they have continued to see more and more families in need.

“We are seeing really high rates of food insecurity in terms of statewide metrics of food insecurity,” said Lev BenEzra, executive director of the Amherst Survival Center. “We’re really seeing enormous levels of need. … Record numbers of people are coming in for the very first time.”

BenEzra said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was certainly a bump in the number of people in need of the Amherst Survival Center’s services, but that numbers have been rising with particular steadiness since the end of 2022, and especially throughout 2023. This, BenEzra credits to a combination of high inflation and the expiration of federal pandemic recovery programs such as child tax credits and expanded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, leading to a “perfect storm of increasing costs” for basic necessities.

“These benefits ended and inflation started to tick up,” said Andrew Morehouse, executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, who said low-income individuals are currently “confronting the challenges they’ve always had that have been exacerbated.”

As of this past August, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts has served 124,478 people — even more than were served at the peak of the pandemic. The food bank moved into a new, much larger facility in Chicopee about a year ago, allowing it to receive and distribute food to its vast network of food pantries, senior centers and other local organizations with greater efficiency.

As the food bank continues to see record levels of need, its new location and increased size have been a source of help as it provides food, SNAP enrollment services, cooking demonstrations and much more. Morehouse said the food bank’s programs are designed to take a holistic approach to hunger and food insecurity, which often have deeper root causes than simply a lack of food.

“Overall, poverty and a lack of income are a deeper cause of hunger, and also systemic barriers like racism and discrimination,” Morehouse said. He added that, at the food bank, “we like to think of ourselves like a big tent, and everyone can be part of the solutions, because there’s no one solution to hunger.”

As people prepare for holiday feasts with loved ones, Franklin County food pantries are experiencing similar trends, and are preparing to stretch donations further and support the most people possible with limited donations.

At the Franklin Area Survival Center in Turners Falls, volunteers have been working to put together 700 Thanksgiving meal bags that will feed more than 1,000 people, while trying to support their regular food pantry service amid decreasing donations.

Over the past couple years, Executive Director Fern Kolakoski said she has seen more and more people come to the center for help, either through the thrift store that offers discounted furniture, clothes and household items, or through the food pantry that feeds hundreds of households each month. Amid inflation and economic struggles, more people need help securing basic necessities. Meanwhile, that also means more people do not have the disposable income to donate.

“Over the past year there’s been a huge drop in donations,” Kolakoski said. “People are struggling more. They’re just trying to get by and forget to or can’t donate.”

The Franklin Area Survival Center receives approximately 300 pounds of food donations per month, when it needs 600 pounds.

“It’s not nearly enough,” Kolakoski said.

Kolakoski said the center does the best it can with what it gets from the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, local stores and bakeries, and donations from individuals, but more food is always needed, especially around the holidays.

The holidays are typically when people are more generous with donations, but it is still a time of great need for many, said Cheo Ramos, manager of the Center for Self-Reliance’s food pantry in Greenfield.

The center served 579 families in October, making for a total of 1,283 individuals. The pantry typically sees more visitors around the holidays, and its four staff members and 25 volunteers do their best to ration donations.

The Center for Self-Reliance’s food pantry is a client choice food center that allows people to “shop” for their groceries each week, and asks clients to limit what they take to just what they need to get them through to the next week, Ramos explained.

Like the Franklin Area Survival Center, the Greenfield pantry also works with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, local stores, farms and individual donors, but is limited by supply chain issues, farming seasons, and the economic and financial challenges faced by donors.

“We get a lot but there’s always need for more,” Ramos said, noting that monetary donations are prefered over food donations. “We can stretch that dollar so much further when we buy in bulk rather than getting a donation of food.”

On United Way’s radar

Over the past few years, food insecurity has become a main area of focus in local needs assessments, such as the 2022 Community Health Needs Assessment by Cooley Dickinson Hospital, which identified access to healthy foods as a continued priority.

In light of such alarming trends in local food insecurity data, the United Way of the Franklin and Hampshire Region has identified food insecurity as a top priority for its philanthropic endeavors in the coming years.

Executive Director Geoff Naunheim said that while there are many ways to measure food insecurity and hunger depending on what data sets are being used, “the rates have skyrocketed and it’s a problem.”

“The least expensive food items have gone up the most — people cite eggs a lot,” Naunheim said of the high costs individuals currently face in grocery stores. “Nonprofits can leverage the funds that we have to get food in a big way.”

Because of this, the United Way of the Franklin and Hampshire Region is planning to award three-year grants to local nonprofits working to battle hunger. Naunheim added that with recent cuts to the state’s Healthy Incentives Program, or HIP, and anticipated cuts to SNAP funding, he hopes these grants give organizations one less cost to worry about.

What can individuals do?

While the causes of food insecurity are varied and far-reaching, local philanthropic leaders say there are ways for individuals to help ameliorate this issue. In particular, contributions of time or money, however small, were lauded as the most impactful ways to help.

Naunheim noted there have been recent increases in overall philanthropic giving, but that it has mostly been “high-capacity donors” awarding large gifts to large organizations. Smaller donations to local organizations have not seen such an increase.

“A small donation goes a long way,” said Naunheim, who encourages individuals to donate to their local food pantries, survival centers or other hunger-fighting organizations.

Morehouse also emphasized the enormous importance of community support, whether it be food donations from local stores, monetary contributions from individuals or the help of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ many loyal volunteers. Plus, Morehouse said, giving back to the community doesn’t just benefit those in need, but everyone who calls it home.

“Every community, every individual benefits when more people are food secure,” he said.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com. Staff writer Madison Schofield contributed to this report.