A worsening hunger crisis has pushed food insecurity in North Carolina to its highest level in a generation, fueled by a combination of federal funding cuts, eligibility changes, and rising grocery costs. According to new data from Feeding America’s annual Map the Meal Gap analysis of USDA and Census Bureau data, local pantries and meal sites are experiencing an unsustainable surge in visits.
Food Bank of Central and Eastern President and CEO Amy Beros said the scope of the crisis across their 34-county central and eastern North Carolina region is staggering.
"Across central and eastern North Carolina, it's 629,980 people who are now food insecure," Beros said. "Again, that's about one in every seven neighbors, and we know that number is a low estimate."
The localized data reveals that the crisis is heavily impacting the region's most vulnerable populations, putting a severe strain on youth and aging communities. The spike represents an increase of nearly 180,000 food-insecure individuals in the region since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
"This includes almost 100,000 seniors living at or below the poverty line, and it also includes 191,000 children," Beros noted.
She said the sudden spike is directly tied to the rollback of pandemic-era aid programs and tightening federal restrictions. When government assistance drops or faces administrative hurdles, the burden immediately shifts to local, non-profit charitable food networks.
"When people lose that grocery support or experience delays like they did last year, they are turning to their local pantries that are already operating either at or beyond capacity," Beros explained.
While the Food Bank's network of more than 700 hunger relief programs continues to maximize its resources, leadership warns that non-profit organizations cannot completely fill the gaps left by reduced government assistance. Beros emphasized that private charity alone cannot replicate the massive scale of federal nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
"For every one meal that we provide, SNAP provides nine," Beros said. "So even as we purchase food very efficiently, we're working with farmers and retailers, we mobilize thousands of volunteers a year and we move food very quickly across our 34 counties, we cannot replace the federal safety net."
With one in seven neighbors now unsure where their next meal will come from, regional officials are issuing an urgent call for community support, financial donations, and volunteer mobilization as national Hunger Action Month begins this September.
