A new report out from the Greater Boston Food Bank finds more people in Massachusetts are food insecure now than before the pandemic.
The 6th Annual Massachusetts Food Access Report indicates that food insecurity has more than doubled since 2019, and now 40% of households are struggling to get the food they need. It's more severe in the western part of the state — more than 50% of households are food insecure in Hampden County. As with most socioeconomic issues plaguing Massachusetts, the issue is also stratified along racial lines. Food insecurity now impacts nearly 60% of Black and Latino residents statewide.
The report also shows that the programs designed to ease hunger, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), are leaving gaps in their support. Nearly 80% of households receiving SNAP get less than $300 a month from the program, and more than half of those households say it's not enough to cover their monthly food budget.
Andrew Morehouse is Executive Director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. He says the rise in hunger coincides with a dramatic increase in the overall cost of living.
"Between the cost of groceries, housing, the cost of gas now, and in particular health insurance... these are all putting a squeeze on people," he explained. "Because of that, folks just can't make ends meet."
That is leading to more people turning to what Morehouse calls the "last resort" of food assistance: pantries and other meal sites supplied by a local food bank. He says in Western Massachusetts, they've been providing more food than ever before, up another 4% so far just this year.
"It's likely to go up even more in the coming months," he said. "We as a food bank network and our partner food pantries and meal sites, we'll plug the holes. But that's not the solution to ending hunger."
Morehouse also points to other issues that compound the problem of hunger, like transportation. In rural areas, people without easy access to transit can be physically too far away from job opportunities, grocery stores, and food pantries.
"In Franklin, Hampshire Counties — [which have] the second highest rates of food insecurity out of all the counties of the Commonwealth — because of its rural nature, busses can't make it to certain parts of the county," he stressed. "And even in urban settings like Hampden County, bus routes don't connect people frequently to the places they need to go, even if it's free."
Widespread food insecurity creates a cascading effect that can impact the financial health of the entire state. People in food insecure households are more likely to experience chronic illness, and require hospitalization. In 2025, hunger was associated with $1.6 billion in emergency care costs for members of MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program.
The report suggests the best way for the Commonwealth to tackle a growing hunger problem is to invest more heavily in state-funded aid programs, as federal support pulls away. It recommends $58 million for the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program (MEFAP), which provides funding for the state's food banks.
It also advocates for increasing cash flow to the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), which oversees how Massachusetts disburses SNAP funding. That's both to increase outreach for food assistance, but also to cover for new changes to SNAP from the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed last summer. That bill shifts more of the cost burden onto states, and enacts strict penalties for any erroneous payments.
Morehouse agrees with the report, that the responsibility for treating hunger falls onto the government when economic conditions lead to such widespread hardship.
"Someone has to step in to ensure that everyone has their basic needs met," he said. "If the economy can't do that and the labor market and the job market can't do that, it's failing. And that's why people are food insecure and people live in poverty. So that's where government comes in."
