{"id":288095,"date":"2026-09-17T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/288095\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:02:10","slug":"opinion-the-worst-part-of-volunteering-at-a-lehigh-valley-food-pantry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/288095\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: The worst part of volunteering at a Lehigh Valley food pantry"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have mixed feelings about working at our local food pantry \u2014 I love it and I hate it.<\/p>\n

Let me explain. I never complain about helping people meet the most basic need: to eat to stay alive. I love helping them. On the other hand, I detest that we need food pantries at all in the wealthiest nation in history.<\/p>\n

Some think people in line at food pantries are malingerers. Meet our veterans. Around 40,000 veterans and their families live in the Lehigh Valley, according to the Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council. According to a report from the Military Family Advisory Network, 41% of veterans report experiencing food insecurity, dramatically increased from 16% in 2023.\n<\/p>\n

The means around 16,000 Lehigh Valley veterans are worse off, which isn\u2019t helped by the drastic cuts to SNAP signed into law by a draft-dodger.<\/p>\n

We see Vietnam veterans in line at our pantry, men who bore arms in a war 9,000 miles from home, only to suffer food deprivation in their final years. \u201cThank you for your service\u201d becomes empty words addressing their empty pockets.<\/p>\n

Active military are also in the cross hairs of these heartless SNAP cuts: \u201cMilitary families are experiencing a sharp rise in food insecurity, driven largely by the rising cost of groceries,\u201d The American Prospect reported in June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An estimated 1,700 military families in the Lehigh Valley are \u201cfood insecure.\u201d Men and women serving overseas must worry for loved ones left behind. As the spouse of a deployed service member told Inkstick<\/a>, \u201cPeople are struggling. Things have gotten a lot more expensive, especially with the gas prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gas prices, rising grocery costs, affordability in general \u2014 these menacing forces do battle against those who do battle for us.<\/p>\n

And what about the children? They are blameless for their hunger. Failure to feed them adequately is an abject sin against the most vulnerable of all. One in 4 Lehigh Valley children rely on SNAP benefits to get enough food, according to the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.\u00a0When federal safety nets are trimmed, local food pantries face an influx of thousands of families searching for emergency support.<\/p>\n

The Lehigh Valley Community Foundation is ringing the alarm<\/a>: \u201cAcross Lehigh and Northampton counties, the warning lights around hunger are flashing. Local food banks report bare shelves, while families watch grocery budgets collide with higher prices and thinner safety nets. At the same time, state and federal turbulence threatens to interrupt the very programs that keep food on kitchen tables. Put plainly: our region faces a sharp rise in food hardship this fall and winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second Harvest Food Bank, the largest food aid organization in the Lehigh Valley, is also sending out dire warnings concerning the emergency situation: \u201cOver the summer, food pantries across our six-county service region saw a significant increase in demand, with more families turning to them, many for the first time, for support. As the cost of everyday necessities continues to rise and cuts to SNAP take effect, more households are struggling to make ends meet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dawn Godshall, CEO of Community Action Lehigh Valley, told me: \u201cFood pantries report that they are no longer just filling occasional gaps; they are functioning as a primary food access safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ominously, as to the upcoming months and the approaching winter, she went on to say that \u201cSecond Harvest and our partner agencies should prepare for approximately 15,000-24,000 residents across the region\u201d who will need food support due to SNAP cuts.<\/p>\n

Our seniors are impacted tragically, often choosing between medications or food. The same such dire choices are being made by our fellow citizens who are physically unable to work, 42% of whom are not finding adequate nourishment.<\/p>\n

Soaring grocery and gas prices have made living on Social Security or other financial aid sources impossible for millions facing food insecurity. Over half of the people who are struggling to eat have full-time jobs that do not pay a \u201cliving wage,\u201d and they must turn to food pantries to feed their family.<\/p>\n

What to do?<\/p>\n

Vote. Insist that candidates boldly and loudly denounce these heartless SNAP cuts and commit to pushing for greater funding of humane actions aimed at feeding our fellow citizens.<\/p>\n

Secondly, help a local food bank, because they are struggling mightily right now. Second Harvest helps to feed people in multiple counties in the Lehigh Valley. Its website<\/a> has information on how to volunteer, donate or take political action.<\/p>\n

You can find a list of other food pantries in the Lehigh Valley at lehighvalleyalive.com\/business\/Food-Pantries.cfm<\/p>\n

What our children, veterans and others hurting from SNAP cuts need right now is our compassion, financial support and political advocacy.<\/p>\n

People are hungry. Feed them \u2014 it\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n

This is a contributed opinion column. Ettore J. Angelo is a criminal defense attorney in the Lehigh Valley. The views expressed in this piece are those of its individual author(s), and should not be interpreted as reflecting the views of this publication. For more details on commentaries, read our guide to guest opinions at themorningcall.com\/opinions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have mixed feelings about working at our local food pantry \u2014 I love it and I hate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,1559],"class_list":["post-288095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288095","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=288095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}