When Crisis Comes, Communities Stand Together
- Second Harvest
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Across our 18-county region, more families are turning to our network of food assistance partners — not because they are doing anything wrong, but because the ground beneath them keeps shifting.
Requests for food assistance are now double what they were in 2022. Many households are still recovering from the economic shocks of the pandemic and recent hurricane response. Now, with the shutdown disrupting federal nutrition programs like SNAP and WIC — or delaying benefits that families depend on to buy groceries — the strain is growing again.
For families who were already budgeting down to the dollar, there is no margin for a missed paycheck, a delayed SNAP benefit, or higher heating costs as winter approaches. That is the reality many of our neighbors are facing.
Second Harvest and our partner network are not waiting to see how long this shutdown lasts or how deep the fallout will go.We are acting now.
We have doubled key food purchases to reinforce our partner agency network's resources ahead of the holidays.
We are stabilizing child and senior feeding programs that cannot pause because of gridlock in Washington.
We are preparing to serve families expected to experience delays in SNAP and WIC, along with those who have never had to ask for help before.
Food banks are powerful — but they are not a replacement for stable public policy. Federal nutrition programs provide nine meals for every one meal the charitable food system provides. When those benefits are interrupted or reduced, food banks must stretch further and faster to hold the line — and that is only possible when communities stand with us.
What gives us confidence in this moment is not the state of Congress — it is the character of this community. Again and again, our region has shown that when conditions worsen for families, people here do not look away. They step in.
Need food assistance?
Get connected to a food program near you at SecondHarvestNWNC.org/find-help.
As you are able, please stand with families now
Give: Every dollar supports more meals through our network.
Launch a Virtual Food Drive: Donations flow directly to our partner agencies.
Volunteer: From sorting donations to preparing community meals, volunteers are critical to sustaining our response.
Raise Your Voice for Families: Tell our leaders that nutrition is essential and stability matters. Call on them to end the shutdown and protect the programs that feed and strengthen our communities.
Shutdowns end. Crises pass.But the measure of a community is how we treat one another while we wait for those tides to turn. Here in Northwest North Carolina, we stand together. And because of that, no family has to face this moment alone.
