News

A Note From the Director

2025 was an impactful year for Feed My People. Our partner agencies, volunteers, and staff have seen numerous challenges and responded with grace, purpose and determination.  

Affordable, nutritious food has been harder to source than in previous years, so we created our Food Resource Team to bring in high quality donated and purchased food from our own region. Two communities with high food insecurity were shaken by the announcement that their largest pantries were closing, so we stepped in to provide crucial support. FoodShare benefits were frozen, so we quickly brought in unprecedented amounts of crucial food and made it available to partners throughout our region.  

At times it was almost disorienting. Levels of food insecurity hit in waves while the ways available to respond in assistance shifted beneath our feet. I use the word "almost" because we maintained our mission-simple in its mandate, however complex in its execution. We fed people. Whatever it took, the incredible people who combine their efforts to make this happen always found a way. You never swayed.

I want to share with you how important it is that this determination continues. One of the crucial statistics that we track is first-time visits to food assistance programs. In this statistic, we start the sheet new on January 1 each year, and each unique individual who receives assistance from a program only gets counted once for that program for the whole year.  

Here, we are able to see the struggles of our communities painted by number. Slight increases in first-time visits in April coincide with households straining to catch up on utility payments as spring allows their heat to be shut off again. Increases in September are tied to the costs families have as they ensure that their children have what they need to return to school. The orange line in the graph shows a spike starting in May and running through July of 2023. This tracks the end of the increase in FoodShare benefits that year and it not only indicates first visits, but also warns of the increased trend of food insecurity from that point forward.  

I ask you, now, to see the line that I am certain you have already noticed.  The light blue of 2025 and the story it tells from September through the end of the year. During these four months, 35,000 individuals needed food assistance from a Feed My People supported program for the first time in 2025. None had reached out to that program within the prior eight months. Many had never sought help feeding their households before.     

Right now, there is no doubt that some people are doing very well. We don't need to worry about food, shelter, utilities, daycare, healthcare or transportation for ourselves or those we love. It is crucial that we see the struggles of our neighbors, though, whether in the concern that they wear in their brows, or in the lines of a chart.  

It is also crucial that we act. Please maintain your determination to support Feed My People, and the community members that we serve. We cannot manage without you and your neighbors cannot manage without the support that Feed My People provides. 

In gratitude,

Padraig Gallagher