NORTHAMPTON — Without his weekly trip to the Northampton Survival Center, David Wielgus would not be able to afford his bills.
The veteran lives with his son and two grandchildren, a family nearly forced into homelessness until a stranger from Boston stepped in to help them secure an apartment. Now, to keep that roof overhead, Wielgus relies on the pantry at 235 Prospect St. He picks up sweets, juice, and milk — essentials that ensure his picky grandchildren have the foods they love.
“The main things are rent for my grandchildren to have a place to stay, and food for them to eat,” he said on Wednesday afternoon while in line to receive bags of food. “Gas and electricity — I could always figure something out.”
Wielgus is just one of the 1.1 million people in Massachusetts — nearly 40% of the population — who experienced food insecurity in 2025, according to a new Statewide Food Assessment Report by Mass General Brigham and the Greater Boston Food Bank. That compares to 37% in 2024 and 19% in 2023.
The year 2025 marked a particularly challenging time in food access, beginning with a shock to egg supply chains and ending with a six-day stall of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
Food insecurity in western Massachusetts, however, is far above the statewide average. Nearly 50% of Hampshire and Franklin County residents did not have consistent access to food last year, according to the new report. Hampden County had the largest food insecurity rate in the commonwealth at 53%.
“There should not be this much food insecurity in any part of the state of Massachusetts, but disproportionately in what is the breadbasket of the state,” Amherst Survival Center Director Carlene Basler said. “You have incredibly hard-working people in western Massachusetts, and we suffer the highest food insecurity.”
Pulling the purse strings
Food insecurity has more than doubled since 2019, and that is not a coincidence. Basler and Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Director of Communications and Engagement Deb Ondo trace the rise of food security to inflation that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The supply of goods and services became scarce as production stopped and prices did not drop when inventory rebounded.
“I think it’s business, and if people realize people will pay this, then they’ll reduce [the price] a little, but not a lot,” Basler said. “That just slowly eats away at the budgets of people who are extremely hard-working.”
While food prices have gone up, wages haven’t kept pace. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wage in Massachusetts increased 4.8% from September 2024 to September 2025. But the USDA Consumer Price Index found that grocery prices increased 3.1% from February 2025 to 2026.
“I had to decide whether I’d have enough gas to come here [Northampton Survival Center] and get to my dentist appointment in Springfield,” South Hadley homeowner Bob Beane said while waiting for his groceries.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts reports that 68% of pantry visitors cited a rise of grocery prices as the reason for their visit, while 37% were visiting because of a decline in wages. As the Food Bank for Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire counties in the western half of the state, the organization delivered 17.9 million pounds of food to their 199 partner pantries in 2025.
The lowest earners or people on a fixed income feel most of the squeeze, but Food Bank officials have noticed an uptick in the number of food pantry visitors who are ineligible for SNAP but still need assistance. Ondo finds that 80% of the people who visit food pantries feel they are taking food from someone else.
“There’s this myth out there that food insecurity is a personal failure,” Ondo said. “But it’s been our experience that people want to support themselves. Even when food is available, some people don’t want to take it and use it.”
The Statewide Food Assessment Report — based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults conducted from October to December — found that about 700,000 households statewide experienced “very low food security” in 2025. This occurs when a person must skip meals or go without food all day because they cannot afford it.
“The data clearly shows that hunger in Massachusetts is on the rise,” said Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, a Mass General Brigham division chief and senior health and research advisor at the food bank. “Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP and WIC, they also say these programs are not enough.”
Some 75% of families receiving SNAP benefits said they still need additional support. Recipients could soon face bigger challenges as funding cuts and work requirements take effect under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The report suggests bolstering state funding for SNAP, with an aim of decreasing a payment error rate that could cost Massachusetts around $350 million annually.
The report calls for boosting funding for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program — which provides direct support to the Greater Boston Food Bank that’s then distributed to other food banks and pantries around the state — to $58 million. Gov. Maura Healey has proposed funding the account at $55 million in fiscal year 2027.
Other recommendations entail ramping up “food is medicine” initiatives that are aimed at preventing and treating “diet-related illnesses,” strengthening food insecurity screenings and referrals for people to connect with support programs, and investing in local food systems.
Network of support
The scars of the pandemic are not only in the price of goods, but in panic around their scarcity. When the Trump administration threatened to withhold SNAP benefits during the 43-day government shutdown last fall, both Basler and Northampton Survival Center Director Heidi Nortonsmith received dozens of calls inquiring about the pantry’s food supplies.
“There was a little bit of a spike right around that time because the uncertainty raged well before and after the actual six days [SNAP was withheld],” Nortonsmith said. “It didn’t feel like six days to the folks who were watching this news and watching it unfold.”
Basler said the Amherst Survival Center’s various partners — from grocery stores and small farms to the Food Bank of Western Mass — ensure the pantry will not run out of food for those in need. The Center greatly benefits from the four colleges in the area and local farms, which provide food, volunteers and other forms of support.
“It is a wonderful way in which the community gives to the Survival Center, [and] the community takes from the survival center,” Basler said. “They give their time, their money, their resources, and what they take is they take away community relations.”
Anti-hunger task force
A new report from Gov. Maura Healey’s Anti-Hunger Task Force recommends the state invest more in SNAP infrastructure and administrative operations for the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA). However, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation doubts the effectiveness of these recommendations.
“Adding more caseworkers without fixing the underlying policies is like mopping the floor while the faucet’s still running,” said Hayden Dublois, a visiting policy analyst.
While Ondo agrees that more DTA funding will help, other local food assistance experts concur the best way to alleviate food insecurity is to address affordability. This could mean raising wages, enhancing SNAP or Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP) funding, providing more child care subsidies and expanding public transit.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts saw an enormous outpouring of volunteers at the end of last year during the SNAP crisis, and Ondo reports the enthusiasm has not dropped. Shifts are full week after week, and Volunteer Coordinator Alison Sjoberg often redirects interested parties to local food pantries.
Both the Northampton and Amherst Survival Center have 340 and 400 dedicated volunteers, respectively — always ready to help out, swap ideas and share community with those in need.
“We have not been doing this work in a vacuum,” Nortonsmith said. “We feel the challenge, and immediately feel the outpouring of support that really keeps us steady.”
Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.
