Food insecurity rates are worst in Western and Central Massachusetts and Bristol County, according to a new study on the state of hunger in Massachusetts.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
A recent study by the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham found that food insecurity continued to rise across the state, but especially in Western Massachusetts.
The study found that household food insecurity increased by 6% to 54% in Hampden County from 2023, while Hampshire and Franklin counties saw the rate jump 13%, with 50% of households now experiencing food insecurity.
Overall, the study found that over one in three residents — or two million Massachusetts adults — faced food insecurity in 2024, while 24% faced “very low” food insecurity, which has quadrupled from 6% in 2019. The study estimated that solving food insecurity in the state would require up to $2 billion annually.
Reminder Publishing reached out to the study’s organizers as well as local organizations to talk about the work they are doing to help people facing food insecurity.
Lauren Fiechtner, the senior health and research advisor for the Greater Boston Food Bank, said Mass. General Brigham and the Greater Boston Food Bank have released an annual study on food insecurity in Massachusetts every year for the past five years.
The study, titled “Massachusetts Food and Access: The Cost of Hunger,” surveys 3,000 adults across the state from all regions, education backgrounds, ages, ethnicities and races to understand the barriers to accessing programs all across the state, including WIC, SNAP benefits, school programs and more.
Fiechtner said that all of the adults surveyed are accessing or not accessing these programs.
“Each year we ask different aspects of peoples’ lives with food insecurity so we can better understand what our clients are experiencing and what our neighbors are experiencing, so programmatically and policy-wise, we can be addressing the needs of the community,” Fiechtner said.
Although household food insecurity is a bit on the rise, Fiechtner said the levels of insecurity have been stable over time thanks to the investments by the state and the work of hunger relief organizations across the commonwealth.
She added that child food insecurity has decreased over the past three years due to the state’s Universal Free School Meals, while WIC enrollment among food-inferior households is up to 71% after it was estimated that only 27% would be enrolled in 2019.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress as a state,” Fiechtner said.
Despite some of these breakthroughs, though, food insecurity still persists in places like Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties. According to Fiechtner, Hampshire and Franklin saw the amount of households experiencing food insecurity decrease from 44% in 2022 to 37% in 2023, before jumping to 50% in 2024.
Meanwhile, Hampden County saw a jump from 48% in 2022 and 2023 to 54% in 2024.
Fiechtner could not pinpoint exactly why the counties were experiencing these stark increases, but she said as long as food banks exist and the state continues to fund some of their major programs, improvements can always be on the horizon.
“I think continuing to fund these incredible programs, including the four across the state, will reduce hunger, improve dietary quality and we know support health,” Fiechtner said.
Food Bank of Western Massachusetts Executive Director Andrew Morehouse stated, “We are actually providing more food, and nutritious food at that, to more people than we have ever in our history.”
With the partnership of nearly 200 food pantries, the Food Bank is currently providing food to 124,000 individuals every month. According to Morehouse, that is the equivalent of 1.25 million meals every month to those individuals.
For a 12-month average, Morehouse said this is the highest level of individuals seeking food assistance in its 40-plus year history.
“Even during [COVID-19] the highest monthly total was only about 121,000, so over a 12-month period, we’re providing food assistance to an average of 124,000 individuals every month,” Morehouse said.
Those numbers do not include multiple visits a month.
Morehouse also said the most surprising data from the report to him was that the food insecurity rate is the highest in Western Massachusetts compared to the rest of the state.
Morehouse acknowledged that the increase in numbers can be due to a few different factors including Western Massachusetts being more rural than the rest of the state, transportation, poverty, chronic health conditions, community factors, jobs and wages and systemic barriers. Morehouse said in certain areas, they are providing an increase in food that exceeds the increase in the number of individuals seeking food assistance.
“We’re keeping pace with the demand, but there are certain communities where we need do a better job of making sure they have equitable access to food and that’s something that we’re in the process of analyzing and will be rain sizing in the months ahead,” Morehouse said, “We definitely are doing everything we possibly can to source more nutritious food and get it out to the communities that need them.”
Morehouse said the Food Bank also deals with transportation issues, but has tackled that problem by adding an additional truck for food transportation and leveraging partnerships with nonprofits organizations and businesses that are providing additional support for transportation.
Although the federal funding is set to change in the next fiscal year and beyond, Morehouse said, “We’re hopeful that the general population will continue to be generous and support the Food Bank so that we can give people a hand up who need it so that they keep a roof over their head and food on their table and pursue economic opportunities. The community has always been generous in the past during hard times, and we are living hard times now that are likely to get harder.”
Readers looking to learn more, are seeking food assistance or wanting to volunteer can visit foodbankwma.org.
Northampton Survival Center Development Director Danielle Brown told Reminder Publishing COVID-19 exacerbated many issues with food insecurity all over the country, and while there was some improvement once COVID-19 relief funding was out, those temporary funding options are now gone, and so challenges have returned and only festered with inflation and other factors.
“We’re definitely seeing a rise in new clients right now and I think that’s for a number of reasons. Some of those reasons are you know there will be a loss in funding for SNAP benefits and things like that. People are already getting nervous and also the summer is always a busy time for us,” said Brown.
The Northampton Survival Center runs two pantries — one in Northampton and one in Goshen for the Hilltown communities, distributing over 800,000 pounds of food each year. In total, the center serves 18 of the cities and towns in Hampshire County.
Brown explained with the general issues coming with the rise of food insecurity, the ripple effects in rural communities can be felt more severely for that population. Brown explained, many who benefit from the Survival Center’s services in the Hilltowns is an elderly population living on a fixed income. With the limited public transportation options in Hilltowns and the of easy access grocers, those living in these communities that rely on the Survival Center already have barriers to access that don’t exist for others regardless of food insecurity status.
“Definitely a lot of folks who come to us are getting healthy nutritious groceries, whereas we would worry about maybe how they would access some of those things if they didn’t have us. If you don’t have a car in the Hilltowns, how are you getting anywhere,” said Brown. “If you’re having to shop at places that are closer, a lot of times it’s those small, one step up from a convenience store places, and so everything is more expensive. Sometimes just because of the geography there can be fewer resources in rural areas, and a lot of the folks who need us living there need all of these other services too.”
In terms of battling the rise of food insecurity, Brown said while there is a lot of great advocacy happening on the subject, the loss of federal funding as it relates to their mission, will be one of the biggest indicators on how operations will or will not combat these challenges.
“We’re about to lose a lot of funding for SNAP benefits, for Medicaid, the USDA has lost some funding, so all of those things have direct effects on food insecurity,” said Brown. “It’s great to live in the state of Massachusetts, they try to do a lot, but they can’t make up the difference in all of the federal funding that is lost.”
Brown added that even with the current food insecurity challenges, the Northampton Survival Center was fortunate to have such a strong community base and support that has lasted 45 years. While they may continue to run into these challenges, they at least have a foundational community support and collaboration to do what they can, as best they can, under the current circumstances.
“We have 10 paid staff folks and 300 active volunteers because there’s no way we’d be able to distribute all of the food without volunteers. So, if you’re sitting at home and wondering how can I make an impact today, volunteer at a survival center or a food pantry,” Brown said.
While volunteers are important, she added that funding is crucial. The Northampton Survival Center has many different partnerships in the region to produce and execute at the level they do. Whether it’s the Food Bank of Western Mass., fresh produce and items from Marty’s Local or discount retailers, the Survival Cetner uses these partnerships to efficiently pull off their own mission.
“It’s huge,” said Brown of the community partnerships that help the Survival Center pull off its mission. “We’ve been here for 45 years and there’s absolutely no way we would be able to do that without all of these great partners and financial donations. We’re turning about $275,000 for our food budget into well over a million dollars’ worth of food every year because of all those partnerships we can leverage.”
Brown said in the meantime, those interested in supporting their work can donate directly to the Survival Center.
“Cash is a great way to support the center. It’s super helpful when people donate food, but it’s also really great when people donate money because we can buy exactly what people need at the time,” Brown said. “If there are difficulties sourcing various kinds of foods, or we have the opportunity to buy wholesale or things like that, the money gives us flexibility to really just serve people when they need it.”
