In any other year, the data that informs an annual report released every Thanksgiving by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank would tell the whole story about hunger in the Ocean State.
But 2025 has been unlike any other year for the Providence-based nonprofit – especially after the recent federal shutdown disrupted benefits for 42 million Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), including 145,000 Rhode Islanders.
Expanding Women’s Health in Newport
South County Health has expanded its award-winning Center for Women’s Health to Newport, offering a…
Learn More
Which is why the release of the annual “Status Report on Hunger in Rhode Island” will have to wait until late January.
“The recent federal government shutdown and SNAP delay has been our top priority this fall,” Melissa Cherney, the food bank’s CEO, said in a statement to Rhode Island Current. “We remain committed to putting together a comprehensive report and providing an in-depth look at who is food insecure in Rhode Island that takes into account how the government shutdown has impacted food security in our state.”
First released in 2007, the annual report lists how many households across the state struggle to afford adequate meals, receive food assistance, along with policy recommendations on how to reduce hunger.
Last year’s six-page report focused on the need for Congress to expand federal programs like SNAP, which the food bank projected could help the 90,500 households enrolled at the time to easily afford three healthy meals per day. The report had also urged state leaders to reduce barriers for SNAP enrollment.
The food bank’s report typically relies on hunger data compiled by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the Brown University School of Public Health as part of its annual RI Life Index survey. But that survey is conducted in the spring.
Food bank spokesperson Kate MacDonald said the data would not account for the rapid increase in food insecurity across Rhode Island observed this fall during the 43-federal government shutdown.
Food pantries in the state served around 100,000 people in the month of October. Pantries last year served roughly 84,400 individuals per month, which at the time was the highest total tracked by the Rhode Island Community Food Bank.
“We want to be able to capture that in our status report,” MacDonald said in an interview. “The data we’re working with has to represent what’s going on now.”
Food bank staff had to shift their focus away from completing the report during the shutdown i to ensuring there was enough food to distribute across its 137 affiliated pantries and other agencies, MacDonald added.
SNAP payments have since resumed now that the longest federal shutdown in history has ended, but the fallout continues, MacDonald said.
“Families who were impacted might be seeing these effects for a little while,” she said. “Families have made choices in what bills to pay and what not to pay.”
Then there’s the massive changes to SNAP under President Donald Trump and Republicans’ signature tax legislation, known as the “one big, beautiful bill.” Under the new law, parents and older Americans will be required to meet stricter work requirements, and states eventually will have to share in the cost of SNAP benefits.
The law also cuts off access completely for refugees and other immigrants starting Feb. 1, 2026.
“It’s going to take some time for what that all means for people’s monthly benefits,” MacDonald said.
The food bank’s full 2025 report will be released Jan. 27 to coincide with Food Insecurity Awareness Day, when its leaders will gather at the State House and hold a virtual town hall to discuss the latest findings.
Christopher Shea is a staff writer for the Rhode Island Current.
