Great Barrington — Despite the cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), People’s Pantry Board of Directors President Laura Gratz told The Berkshire Edge that the organization’s “doors are open, whatever happens.”
The organization originally opened in 1999 and has operated out of Saint James Place, at 5 Taconic Avenue, since 2017. The pantry is open twice a week and distributes a variety of fresh food and hygiene items to residents and families in need.
On October 1, Congress failed to pass an appropriations bill, which led to a shutdown of the federal government. As of press time on Tuesday, November 4, the 35-day shutdown is now a few hours away from being the longest in the country’s.
As part of the shutdown, the Trump administration told states that the federal government would not pay SNAP benefits for the month of November. However, on October 31, a federal judge issued a ruling ordering the administration to issue SNAP benefits to states.
According to Massachusetts’ SNAP website, the October 31 order does not immediately restore benefits.
As reported by various media outlets, the Trump administration will not fully fund SNAP benefits for November, instead funding only half of the benefits to states from a Department of Agriculture contingency fund.
As of press time on November 4, the state’s SNAP website states that it is unclear when the federal government will fund SNAP benefits and how much funding will ultimately be issued.
Despite the October 31 court order, President Donald J. Trump announced in the late morning of November 4 through a post on Truth Social that his administration would not issue SNAP benefits.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’s (FRED) website, as of 2022, 25,049 residents in Berkshire County receive SNAP benefits. According to FRED’s website, the number of SNAP beneficiaries in Berkshire County continues to increase.
Graph data courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED).
In a Letter to the Editor submitted to The Berkshire Edge back in April, Gratz wrote that more than 11 percent of residents in Berkshire County, including 16 percent of children in the area, experience serious food insecurity.
According to statistics provided by The People’s Pantry, the number of those in need continues to grow. The pantry saw 3,398 service visits in October 2025, up from 2,879 service visits in October 2024, or an increase of 18 percent year over year.
Gratz said that, considering the crisis facing SNAP funding, she expects the needs of Berkshire County residents to continue to grow. “But we are prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure that people feel like they can come to us for food and feel respected,” she said. “No questions asked. We never ask any questions to anyone coming to the pantry.”
Gratz said the pantry is seeing an increase in young families from Berkshire County coming to the pantry. “In the past, during our 26 years of operation, for a long time we mostly had senior citizens on a fixed income stopping by looking for help,” she said. “That has completely changed since the pandemic. The number of seniors who come here have remained kind of steady for some time. Ever since the pandemic, we have continued to see several families with children coming to the pantry.”
Gratz said the pantry has seen an increase in young families because “it’s hard to raise a family with the high cost of living in our area.”
“We all know that there has been talk about SNAP and WIC [USDA’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children] ending,” she said. “This is why we have been in communication with all sorts of people across the food-insecurity network organizations all across Berkshire County, including Berkshire Bounty and the Western Massachusetts Food Bank. As for our organization, we have a very active board and volunteers. We are a really resourceful group, and right now we’re just trying to figure it out. The news has been devastating. But on the flip side, it is so heartwarming the way that the community has been reaching out.”
Gratz said it is so far unclear how cuts to SNAP benefits and uncertainty around the program’s future will impact residents in need. “There are people out there confused about where their food is going to come from, and they are all going to be hungry,” she said. “We have never seen this happen before. Maybe a whole lot more people will come in during the next few weeks. Who knows. But The People’s Pantry is a stable, secure, and welcoming place where people are going to be treated with respect and given food no matter what. If they can’t count on SNAP, they know that they can count on us.”
For more information about The People’s Pantry, visit its website.
Previous reporting: “Federal government to reinstate partial SNAP benefits for November using contingency funds.”
