In Food Drive 2025’s very first week, with SNAP suspended, our congregation brought in 395 pounds of food for Interchange Food Pantry! We had to do a special pickup to clear the way for more donations (and everyone’s coats).
Two weeks in, we’d raised almost a third of our goal for the two-month drive. Wow, talk about being thankful.
Then SNAP got funded and the immediate crisis averted, hooray! But this is a tale of caution as well as celebration … because we are in it for the long haul under the current administration.
Frankly, our pantry is in pretty dire straits. Why? Guest numbers increasing. Our usual funding and food sources drying up.
The other day, our pantry director found literally FOUR items available at our main food bank: soy-sauce packets, sauerkraut, another sauerkraut, juice. He ordered all the juice. It vanished within a half-day of pantry service.
The pantry’s food bank currently has almost no produce and 10% of the dry goods needed to fill the bags for our guests. So we’ve been buying produce wholesale from Jennaro Brothers and dry goods from Sam’s Club, applying for emergency grants, dipping into our reserves.
Please consider donating at www.interchangefoodpantry.org/donate. Or bring in food on Sundays (a flat/case of one item is most helpful—think Aldi).
Deep thanks for any help. This is not over.