Kiwanis members, Fred Larson (left) and Sam Teresi (right) ring the bells for the Salvation Army Christmas in July Kettle drive.

Funding cuts at the federal level continue to affect local organizations in big ways, especially organizations such as food pantries and soup kitchens.

To help alleviate the situation, the Jamestown Salvation Army recently held another bell ringing fundraiser. Call it a slice of Christmas in July.

“Government cuts have affected us in a huge way,” Salvation Army Major Kim Merchant said. “Everyone everywhere is seeing effects from that. It is affecting us enough that we may have to end up cutting some programming and services we offer.”

As food pantries and related organizations see losses in funding, they also face another challenge as the amount of people facing hunger and using food pantry and soup kitchen services is also on the rise. Merchant said the Salvation Army is seeing new clients almost daily, as people who have not needed to have access to their services before are now finding they can no longer provide for their families and coming to the food pantry.

The Salvation Army held their bell ringing fundraiser outside of Walmart for five days, and while she did not have the exact total, Merchant said around $2,000 was raised through that.

St Susan’s Center has also been feeling the effects of the federal funding cuts. Executive Director Cherie Rowland said because FeedMore Western New York has been hit by the cuts, St Susan’s has as well as they get some of the food they provide from them — $2,800 in food purchases last year to be exact, that was either free or at a reduced price. The ability to provide items such as protein and dairy have changed as well, Rowland added, as the USDA recently changed how they give out funds too. Rowland said FeedMore WNY had 12 orders of food cancelled between May and August.

Like the Salvation Army, the number of people they see coming into St Susan’s Center is also increasing.

“We’ve seen about a two percent increase across various age groups,” Rowland said. “We have around 178 to 200 people come in per week depending on the time of the month, which also depends on how people are managing things like SNAP.”

Rowland added that they are “very blessed” to have local retailers that they work with to help set up agreements with FeedMore and have personnel that build relationships there, saying that 50% of their protein comes directly from retailers lately because of the USDA’s change.

FeedMore WNY is also seeing an increase in the amount of people they serve across their four counties that they serve; Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara. Public Relations Manager, Catherine Shick, said they served 165,722 individuals last year which is a 16% increase from the year before and a 46% increase since 2021. While these numbers continue to increase, Shick said the cancellation of programs such as TEFAP, or The Emergency Food Assistance Program, will have a total impact of $3.5 million worth of food loss. Echoing what Rowland said about the 12 cancelled orders, Shick said those pending orders would have been full of nutritious, high-value food that would have been passed on to their partners that are no longer coming.

Whenever there is a loss of funding towards food related programs, Shick said FeedMore has to respond differently to each situation but continues to work to address the growing crisis. Additionally, she said last week the USDA announced $230 million in local food purchases will be passed down from the Food Emergency Assistance Program, though she said she did not know how much or when that will be received at the local level.

“Any time there is any sort of funding loss, whether it’s federal funding or SNAP cuts, it leaves people vulnerable,” Shick said. “It causes more stress when they are already stretched. We continue to be here to support our partner agencies and continue to find creative ways to support them.”

Citing things such as receiving less protein because of the order cancellations, Shick said FeedMore is doing what they can to still make protein available for people in places such as their mobile market, which is similar to a food truck and offers fresh produce at a low cost and gives easy access to fresh produce in areas that need it. FeedMore nutritionists also go out into the community to teach classes, and FeedMore also provides SNAP outreach assistance.

“We continue to look to support the communities we serve in additional ways,” Shick said. “We are grateful for the partnerships we have through Chautauqua County and all of our service areas. We encourage the community to get involved and support FeedMore or your local food pantry or soup kitchen.”