Child Hunger Relief: We Are at a Breaking Point

CHOP Out Hunger
Apr 21
2 min read

Sparse pantry shelves with a few boxes of pasta, a can of peanut butter, and a box of crackers, set against a beige wall. — We’ve done more with less. Now there’s nothing left to stretch.

We don’t like writing posts like this.

But it’s time to be brutally honest because the future of hunger relief in our communities depends on it.

Across Pennsylvania and beyond, charitable food organizations like CHOP Out Hunger are facing an unprecedented crisis. It’s a perfect storm: soaring need, shrinking resources, and an exhausted support system that’s being asked to do the impossible - again and again.

Let’s start with what matters most: the kids. We’re now supporting over 50,000 children each week with food access - children who go home on weekends and school breaks to empty cupboards. And every week, the number of community partners seeking help grows.

More families are struggling. More children are slipping into hunger. More schools are reaching out to us, desperate for help.

But here’s the hard truth:

We can’t keep up.

We’ve stretched every dollar. Maxed out our staff. Leaned heavily on our volunteers. Applied for every grant we can.

But the system is cracking—and fast.

Food costs are up.
Freight costs are up.
Grant funding is down.
Donor fatigue is real.

And despite all this, we’re expected to serve more people with fewer resources.

This is not sustainable.

The emergency safety nets that once helped, pandemic relief, extra SNAP benefits, local subsidies, are gone. The need hasn’t disappeared. In fact, it’s only gotten worse. More people need relief. We’ve relied on the generosity of private donors, grants, and community partners to carry us through. But those sources are now stretched too thin.

If nothing changes, we’ll have to make impossible choices:

Cutting back on schools we serve.
Turning families away.
Saying “no” when all we want to do is say “yes.”

We’re not writing this to alarm you - we’re writing to wake you up. This is not a tomorrow problem. This is a right now problem.

If you’ve ever given, volunteered, or supported our mission—please, do it again. If you’ve ever thought, “They’ve got it covered”—we don’t. If you’ve ever said, “I wish I could do more”- now is the time.