{"id":27537,"date":"2025-11-07T09:37:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27537\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T09:37:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T09:37:24","slug":"everybodys-feeling-the-pinch-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/27537\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everybody\u2019s feeling the pinch\u2019 \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"21.9%<\/a> <\/p>\n

Photo by Austin Carey<\/a> for The Lafayette <\/p>\n

21.9% of Easton residents received SNAP benefits in 2020, according to census data.<\/p>\n

Easton-area food banks and residents alike have been strained since food stamps lapsed on Saturday during the federal government shutdown<\/a>. Combined with Pennsylvania\u2019s four-month budget impasse and already high levels of food insecurity, local nonprofits are facing more demand from residents with fewer resources at their disposal.<\/p>\n

Although a federal court ordered<\/a> President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to pay SNAP benefits during the shutdown in a hearing last Friday, payments remained delayed as the administration has sent mixed messages<\/a> regarding its compliance with the order.<\/p>\n

Daniel Mino, a corps commanding officer for the Easton Salvation Army, said his organization was struggling to meet demand despite corporate support from Wawa, Walmart and Wegmans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have enough for the food banks in the area,\u201d Mino said. \u201cIt\u2019s very limited what we can get, so we are struggling this month.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mino added that the Easton Salvation Army saw 75 new clients last month on top of its usual crowd of 180, and expects even more in November due to the funding lapse.<\/p>\n

Allison Czapp, the executive director of Easton Neighborhood Center, said that nonprofits were not getting reimbursed on state grant money during the impasse.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s feeling the pinch,\u201d Czapp said. \u201cMoney is just not flowing to the nonprofit sector, and this is another kick in the teeth.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Easton, 21.9% of residents received SNAP benefits in 2020, according to the most recent census, reported by Northampton News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the greater Lehigh Valley, just over 106,000 residents receive SNAP benefits, according to a study by United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley<\/a>, and over 40% of the area live paycheck-to-paycheck. Nationally, SNAP served<\/a> an average 41.7 million people per month during the 2024 fiscal year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most horrendous thing is that these people are our neighbors,\u201d Czapp said. \u201cThese aren\u2019t strangers extracting resources from our community. These are people who live next to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local businesses also face challenges as SNAP-reliant customers lose access to benefits, according to Easton Farmers\u2019 Market manager Emily Roland.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of small businesses accept and rely on SNAP dollars to help support themselves,\u201d Roland said. \u201cIt would be a pretty significant financial hit to them if they aren\u2019t seeing those benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCommunity support is the most sustainable thing we have,\u201d she continued. \u201cIt\u2019s the fabric of resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Reid, the manager of Easton Garden Works, added that food banks had already experienced some shortages and were asking for more supplies.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur pantries are asking us to give them anything they can, because they\u2019re starting to see empty shelves,\u201d Reid said.<\/p>\n

In light of the benefit cuts, other Easton-area charities and organizations are pitching in to help.<\/p>\n

Richann Hunisker said her ministry, Warm Hearts in PA, is adding a Monday community meal to its weekly Wednesday offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re worried because we want to provide for the community,\u201d Hunisker said. \u201cBut I think where there\u2019s a will, there\u2019s a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easton Farmers\u2019 Market is also hosting a community food drive on Saturday for ProJeCt of Easton and the Neighborhood Center\u2019s food pantries.<\/p>\n

A case manager from ProJeCt of Easton, a city social services organization, declined to comment, citing busy workloads stemming from the benefits pause.<\/p>\n

At Lafayette College, Landis program MOSAIC leadership coordinator Hope Basaman \u201826 said that the organization plans to pack snack bags for local elementary schools on Nov. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important for Lafayette to be involved in these situations,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to make sure everyone\u2019s learning and engaging as best possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clara Witmer \u201827 contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Austin Carey for The Lafayette 21.9% of Easton residents received SNAP benefits in 2020, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-27537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}