Strafford County food pantries raise alarm about increasing hunger and food insecurity

New Hampshire families are struggling to put food on the table and the problem is only getting worse, according to a new report from Feeding America and a group of local charity leaders who gathered to discuss the issue in Rochester this week.

Feeding America, a national nonprofit, reported that food insecurity in New Hampshire rose from 10.7% of residents in 2023 to 11.7% in 2024 in its recently released annual report. Among children, the problem is even more severe. Child food insecurity rose in the state 6% during that time period, from 14.4% to 15.5% of New Hampshire children.

Data for 2025 and 2026 isn’t available because of delays in federal data reporting. However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which had been providing this data for around 30 years, canceled its annual Food Security Survey last year. Hunger nonprofits and others are concerned that without the survey they’ll lack an accurate picture of the state and national landscape.

“These redundant, costly, politicized, and extraneous studies do nothing more than fear monger,” the Trump administration wrote in a press release announcing the cancellation. “For 30 years, this study — initially created by the Clinton administration as a means to support the increase of SNAP eligibility and benefit allotments — failed to present anything more than subjective, liberal fodder.”

Elsy Cipriani, executive director of the New Hampshire Food Bank, told the Bulletin she’s confident food insecurity has only worsened since 2024.

During a roundtable on Tuesday, food pantry and food bank officials described an increasing number of sign-ups from people concerned about the economy, as well as a rise in homelessness among those they help. Others have been asking if they can visit the pantry after hours because they’re working jobs during operating hours, which don’t pay enough to cover expenses, they said.

Officials also lamented the rising cost of food, fuel (which adds to delivery costs), and other necessary resources, which is inhibiting their ability to meet the growing demand. They said inflation is also hitting their benefactors’ wallets and decreasing donations.

Cipriani said last year it cost the food bank 90 cents per meal to provide food to its partner organizations, such as local food pantries, but this year that’s risen 8 cents per meal.

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“Which a lot of people think, ‘Now, doesn’t sound like a lot. That’s only eight cents,’” she said. “But you multiply that for 20 million pounds of food.”

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who organized the roundtable, took aim at federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program implemented by Republicans in their One Big Beautiful Bill Act. 

That new law, among other things, capped future SNAP funding increases at the rate of inflation; restricted the factors that can be taken into account when deciding a family’s benefit amount; banned many legal migrants (specifically refugees and asylees) from benefitting from the program (people in the country without legal status were already ineligible); and implemented stricter work requirements. Those measures have been going into effect in a piecemeal schedule since the bill was signed into law in July 2025.

“This was done as a deliberative design to try and reduce the number of people who are getting assistance,” Shaheen said. “And that’s part of the problem because people are dealing with the increased cost of everything from energy to groceries to rent, and we should be doing everything possible to ensure that people have enough to eat.”

The nonprofit leaders also discussed how other issues, such as homelessness, are compounding the problem. Rochester Mayor Chuck Grassie said the city is struggling to build shelters because neighbors oppose them.

“Everybody says, ‘Oh yeah, we need more of that, but no, we don’t want it in my neighborhood or not here. Do it there,’” Grassie said. “Hopefully, working with the county, we’ll be able to get some more of that stuff, because I think they’re in a good place to try to promote that.”

All the nonprofit leaders were most concerned about the youth going hungry in the state.

“I just learned that we’re serving 46 homeless high school students,” Annie Hayes, executive director of Gather, a food pantry in Portsmouth, said.