One service area reported a 55% increase in new food bank clients over a two-month period this summer.
Food pantries in Pennsylvania are reporting demand levels that may exceed those seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to food bank leaders around the state.
The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, which serves roughly 270,000 people each month across 27 counties, has recorded a rise in need as members of the community struggle with escalating financial need. In its Allentown service area, officials reported a 55% increase in new clients over a two-month period this summer.
“We see new people every day,” said Deidre Lenker, executive director of the Harrisburg Area Food Pantry. “We’re registering people, and we can see that they’ve never even been here before. Fifteen households in a day could be new to receiving these services.”
Statewide, food bank leaders have pointed to several contributing factors being behind the need, including rising electric bills and state budget delays.
Recent data points to electricity costs straining Pennsylvania households. Under Gov. Josh Shapiro, the state remained in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for years before agreeing to withdraw as part of the 2025 budget deal, a program Republican lawmakers say drove up electricity costs. Despite the withdrawal, prices have kept climbing: Pennsylvania’s Independent Fiscal Office reported in July that the average monthly household electric bill has climbed 34.9% over the past four years, with residential bills averaging $66 a month more now than in 2022.
Pennsylvania’s budget process has also faced repeated delays in recent years, burdening nonprofit organizations and the families that rely on them. The 2025-26 state budget was signed 135 days after the constitutional June 30 deadline, making Pennsylvania the last state in the country to enact a budget that fiscal year. The 2026-27 budget was also signed weeks after the deadline.
During the 2025 impasse, a survey conducted by the Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations found that more than 80% of responding member organizations expected to exhaust contingency funds by the end of October if the budget remained unresolved. County governments and service providers, including those involved in food and human services, said that delayed state funding was affecting their operations.
Some food bank operators have blamed the increase in food insecurity on changes to SNAP eligibility. Pennsylvania Department of Human Services data shows SNAP enrollment fell from about 1.96 million to 1.74 million recipients over the past year, an 11% decline. State officials have claimed that roughly 98,000 of those who left the program, just under half the total decline, can be attributed to new federal requirements for SNAP eligibility, which require more participants to verify that they work in order to receive benefits.
Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding said the state added five million dollars in funding for food banks last year in response to SNAP-related cutbacks. Redding also admitted that, despite this funding, the number of people experiencing food insecurity has continued to rise.
Food bank officials in Pennsylvania say they expect demand to remain elevated in the coming months and have called for continued donations and volunteer support to meet current service levels.
“It’s really important for us to shine a light on what we consider to be a silent crisis, that is hunger across our communities, across every municipality, every borough, township,” Shila Ulrich, the CEO of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, stated.
