‘Hunger Crisis’: Food Banks in Key Swing States Reporting ‘Increase in Demand’

Food banks in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are reporting an “increase in demand” from people waiting in lines for food.

Several officials from food banks and organizations that work to bring an end to hunger explained to NBC News that they have seen an increase in the number of people who are in need of food. Officials at the food banks noted that the need has become “significantly higher” than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Joe Arthur, the Executive Director of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, explained to the outlet that his organization has “seen a more than” 50 percent “increase in demand since 2021.

“It’s a hunger crisis,” Arthur explained to the outlet. “The need that we’re seeing in our localities is actually as high as it was at the peak of the pandemic, yet there are less resources for those families today.”

The outlet noted that food banks “from rural Michigan to midsize towns in Pennsylvania and affluent suburbs in Wisconsin” were reporting the increase in demand from people “over the past several years”:

From rural Michigan to midsize towns in Pennsylvania and affluent suburbs in Wisconsin, food banks are reporting record levels of need that have been steadily increasing over the past several years. Despite rising wages and low unemployment rates, many households continue to struggle with escalating costs that have depleted their savings and increased credit card debt, leaving little money left over at the end of the month to put food on the table, food bank directors said.

“We have never seen this level in the 43 years we have been serving this community,” Ken Estelle, who serves as the president of Feeding America West Michigan. “It is significantly higher than during Covid and has pressed us beyond our capacity.”

Feeding America is “part of a nationwide network of over 200 food banks and 60,00 meal programs so people can access food without judgment or stigma,” according to the organization’s website.

Rochelle Gamauf, who works at a food pantry in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, explained to the outlet that she was “seeing people that have never visited a food pantry in their life,” adding that people were also being affected by the increase in rent, electricity, and insurance bills.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, between January 2021 and September 2024, electricity prices increased roughly 28 percent, grocery prices increased by 21.6 percent, and rent prices increased by roughly 23 percent.

As Breitbart News has previously reported, former President Donald Trump has “compared food prices” under his presidency, to the food prices under the Biden-Harris administration, “citing the cost” of items such as coffee, salmon, chicken, and eggs, among others.

An RMG Research poll from September found that 57 percent of registered voters do not feel that they are “better off” than they were four years ago, while 37 percent said they were. The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters.