Christopher Fields has more mouths to feed now, so he didn’t know what to expect when he took his first trip to a food pantry on a recent Thursday morning.
Loading his truck with juices and peanut butter, he knew the extra food would help fill the bellies of the children, ages 3 and 5, he recently gained custody of, and that they would be especially happy about the watermelon.
“This is more than I expected,” he said, as he pulled out of the Neighbor’s Aid Food Pantry in St. Paul. In the weeks since, he said food pantries have helped his family fix meals and supplement the $220 per month he now receives in federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, or SNAP.
It’s all new to Fields, 49, from Coeburn, who said he is jointly caring for the children after recently losing his job and a portion of his disability payments, all while food prices continue to rise.
At the grocery store, he keeps his phone open on the calculator app to add up prices as he goes, a constant balance of cutting costs and buying enough food. In the race to keep up with bills and the kids, the start of school has helped by supplying free meals and bags of food they can bring home on holiday breaks.
Like Fields, feeding everyone at the table is increasingly challenging for many Virginians. One in eight Virginians do not always have enough food in the fridge, according to the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. The highest rates of food insecurity are concentrated in the Southwest region, where some counties have one in five residents who cannot access enough food due to a lack of money and other essential resources.
And since July 2025, food prices have risen, 120,000 fewer Virginians have received federal food aid and food pantries have scrambled to keep pace with demand for services.
The combination of the rising cost of living — including food along with other necessities like rent, gas and healthcare — and past and predicted future federal changes to SNAP has left many Virginia families reeling, said Hannah Wyatt, staff attorney at the Virginia Poverty Law Center. The food pantries that step in to help meet unprecedented demand often “just aren’t set up to support the magnitude of people who are now relying on them,” she said.
Now, more than a year since federal legislation changed the SNAP landscape, Virginians are taking stock of how Southwest and Southside communities are adapting, especially when it comes to the fresh produce that can feel out of reach at the grocery store.
A review of the numbers since July 2025
In July 2025, the federal spending bill called H.R. 1 was signed into law, with plans to reduce federal spending for food aid by $187 billion over the next decade.
About this story
This is the first story in a two-part series about food insecurity in Southwest and Southside Virginia. Come back Friday for a deeper dive into the perspective of food pantries that are facing increased demand.
An online data dashboard from Virginia’s secretary of health and human resources shows that there’s been about a 14% decrease in the number of Virginians participating in SNAP since July 2025, taking about 867,000 participants down to about 750,000.
Another 5,800 people currently enrolled in SNAP may be at risk of losing their benefits, the dashboard shows.
The first changes applied to SNAP as a result of the law made eligibility for the program stricter, especially when it comes to work requirement exemptions.
Able-bodied participants must work 20 hours a week to receive benefits, unless they fall into certain categories of exemption from the work requirement. Before changes were spurred by the federal law, being older than 54 or having a child under the age of 18 counted as an exemption. Under the new rules, participants must be older than 64 or have a child under the age of 14 to qualify for work exemptions.
The federal legislation removes or restricts several other work exemptions, including those for individuals experiencing homelessness, certain veterans and youths aging out of foster care.
H.R. 1 also limited states’ ability to waive work requirements to better match local conditions, Wyatt said.
Counties and cities with above-average unemployment rates are able to apply for such waivers, Wyatt said, to reflect that SNAP applicants in their area may not be able to find work because there are few local jobs available. With the way unemployment rates were evaluated prior to the federal changes, 12 Virginia localities qualified for such waivers, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture — including the Southwest and Southside locations of Danville, Martinsville, Brunswick County, Greensville County, Buchanan County and Dickenson County. Those waivers expired June 30.
Under new federal guidelines, Wyatt said, a locality now has to have an unemployment rate of 10% or higher to qualify for the waivers. No Virginia localities qualify for waivers under those standards, according to 2025 unemployment data, Wyatt said.
H.R. 1, also called Public Law 119-21, also tightened SNAP eligibility by narrowing which non-citizens can qualify. Previously eligible groups such as refugees, asylees and parolees are now excluded from the program unless they become lawful permanent residents.
“SNAP plays an essential role in ensuring families can maintain food security and put food on the table,” said Michael Pulley, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Social Services, in a statement to Cardinal News. “The changes under Public Law 119-21 are federal changes that Virginia is required to comply with, and their effect is clear: more Virginians are losing access to food assistance, and food insecurity in the Commonwealth is rising.”
Meanwhile, from July 2025 to July 2026, food prices across categories increased by 3%, according to the USDA’s food price outlook. Some food prices rose more in that span, with prices about 9% higher for beef and 6% higher for fresh vegetables.
The price hikes build on years of consistent inflation, the USDA reports. In 2022, food prices increased by close to 10%, faster than in any year since 1979.
Residents see food trends affect their grocery carts
In a survey conducted by Cardinal News in May and June, Southwest and Southside residents reported feeling the effects of rising food prices. Respondents said they’re buying less meat and produce to opt for cheaper choices; skipping meals; and growing more frustrated that their pay and federal assistance don’t keep up with what it takes to afford food, gas, medicine and other essentials.
A Radford resident reported in the survey that she tries “to make food stretch as much as possible,” but “as a mom of 2 boys I’ll go without to make sure they have food.”
“The prices of food are outrageous,” a Giles County resident from a household of five or more said in the survey. “We have food stamps and still spend over $500 out of pocket each month.”
A resident from a family of four in Martinsville said the family has “cut back” at the grocery store, with “no meats but once a month.”
Making tough choices at the grocery store takes different forms for different families in Virginia, said Whitney Shrader, a Tazewell County resident and mom of two. In her household, it means building meal ideas around manager’s specials and coupons, cutting many of her 3- and 11-year-old boys’ favorite snacks from the list and opting for the cheapest proteins.
“We always like to joke that it’s like payday if we have chicken or pork or an occasional small steak that was on sale,” Shrader said. “My kids think that’s a celebration at that point.”
But overall, “it feels like 99% of us are barely keeping our heads above water,” she said of her Southwest neighbors, many of whom, like her, struggle to make ends meet yet don’t qualify for SNAP. She works a full-time job and is above the income limit to qualify.
“We’re in that group of: ‘Do I pay my electric bill and not buy groceries, or do I feed my family and sit in the dark for the rest of the month? Do I put gas in the car or do I make sure that the baby has juice to drink today?’ It comes down to that situation,” Shrader said of her regional neighbors.
Federal changes on the horizon
H.R. 1 also outlines a plan that, starting Oct. 1, the federal government will reduce its share of SNAP administrative costs from 50% to 25% and require states to pay the difference. In Virginia, that means the state needs to fund about $93 million more in administrative costs per year, according to a state data dashboard.
And starting in October 2027, some states will be expected to pay a portion of SNAP benefit costs as well. The required state share will be calculated based on error rates, or the accuracy of each state’s eligibility and benefit determinations as measured by overpayments and underpayments. Virginia’s 2025 error rate is about 12.3%, and states with error rates at or above a 6% threshold will be responsible for covering shares of benefits.
Virginia’s potential cost share for benefits could be more than $270 million per year, according to the data dashboard.
Marvin Figueroa, the state secretary of health and human resources, said in an August news conference that his department is “committed to reducing that error rate” by identifying where errors are happening, correcting them on the spot and then applying those lessons to future trainings in order to “ensure that that doesn’t happen anywhere else.”
The General Assembly passed a number of SNAP-related items in its budget, which was approved in late June, including $135 million for Virginia’s predicted increased share of SNAP costs and $2.4 million to fund a SNAP quality assurance team.
“The reality is that Virginia will not be able to make up the difference in a loss of federal funds. We will not be able to close the entirety of the gap caused by this catastrophic legislation,” Gov. Abigail Spanberger said at the August news conference, when she signed an executive order aimed at protecting Virginians’ access to federal food assistance. “We are working to mitigate every possible harm that we can as an administration.”
“We cannot replace every lost federal dollar, and we cannot promise that no one will lose coverage,” Figueroa said. “What we can promise is disciplined execution. We will communicate early. We will tell the truth about the impact. We will tell the truth about what we can and can’t do. We will publish the data, and we will listen when the process is not working and try to fix it.”
Stress on a food pantry system ‘already stretched to the max’
The rising price of food, combined with the higher cost of living, wages that often don’t keep up and uncertainty with federal changes to SNAP, have caused more Virginians to turn to food pantries for help in recent years, said Eddie Oliver, the executive director of the Federation of Virginia Food Banks. There’s been a 10% to 20% increase in demand at Virginia’s food pantries year over year since 2023, varying by region, he said.
The organization that Oliver oversees includes seven regional food banks and more than 2,000 food pantries and distribution sites. Across the board, they’ve seen a consistent decline in food donations in the same period of time that demand has been increasing, he said. Some grocery stores and other businesses that used to regularly donate surplus food now do so less frequently or not at all as everyone strives to be more efficient with resources, he said.
To fill the gap, food banks and pantries collectively have been spending more money to stock the shelves, Oliver said. He estimates that, statewide, they’ve spent between $20 million to $30 million every year on food since 2023. Before the pandemic, $5 million or $6 million was a normal total for the year.
While 2026’s final numbers are yet to be seen, Oliver estimates increased demand and a bigger gap to fill with cash.
“If people were relying on SNAP benefits, and for whatever reason can no longer rely on SNAP benefits, they’re going to have to turn to the pantry system,” he said. “That’s an additional shock that we’re going to have to absorb on top of the trends that we’ve already been seeing.”
The charitable food system was designed to help families in emergency situations, Oliver said, not be “the only reliable source of nutrition” in communities. Many food banks and pantries weren’t built to keep pace with today’s demands, limited by funding, volunteer availability and physical infrastructure like storage spaces and refrigerators, he said.
“Every time the safety net is weakened, like it was in H.R. 1 with access to SNAP decreased, that’s going to put more on the charitable food system,” he said. “And we are already stretched to the max, so it’s not a sustainable solution,” he said.
Shannon Hardwicke, executive director of a farm and food pantry in Floyd called Plenty!, said her volunteers are finding creative ways to close the gap between decreasing donations and increasing demand. Produce is grown on site with sustainable practices, volunteers complete daily “food rescues” at stores such as Food Lion and Dollar General to salvage food that can’t be sold but is still safe to eat, gleaners check neighboring farms for leftover crops, and everyone keeps an eye out for new grants to apply for.
In the meantime, the line at the door gets longer, she said. Plenty! served about 900 families in 2023, 1,000 families in 2024 and 1,300 families in 2025. She’s projecting that numbers will increase again in 2026.
“It is more dire — keeping our supplies high so we don’t run out of things. That’s been a real struggle for us, because we have so many more people coming,” she said.
Oliver and Hardwicke said it’s too soon to calculate the rise in the number of food pantry visitors that are a direct result of recent SNAP eligibility changes. They agreed, however, that with fewer SNAP participants in Virginia, there are more residents who are one life event — a car repair, a medical bill, a spike in rent — away from not having enough money to go grocery shopping and likely turning to the charitable food network for help.
“And we want people to come when they need us,” Hardwicke said. “I wish people knew that. For some, there’s a certain level of shame to come to a pantry, and I don’t want someone to go without nutritious food because of that shame factor.”
A closer look at fresh produce
Regardless of whether residents qualify for SNAP, food is getting more expensive for everyone who goes to the grocery store.
In 2026, prices for all food are predicted to increase another 3%, according to the USDA. Prices for beef, fish, fresh produce, and processed fruits and vegetables are expected to grow faster than average. Prices for fresh vegetables, for example, are predicted to increase about 6%.
“So there’s food insecurity, but there’s even more healthy food insecurity,” said Susan Robinson of Lynchburg Grows, a nonprofit farm that sells and donates the food it grows, and also hosts classes, camps and other opportunities to make healthy food more accessible.
Robinson coordinates FreshRx at Lynchburg Grows — a program with weekly cooking classes that teach community members how to shop for, cook and store fresh food in a way that makes ingredients and budgets stretch further. The program is free, provides farm-fresh fruits and veggies to cook with and sends every participant home with a new piece of equipment for their kitchen.
“So they’re going home with a slow cooker or a nice knife or a cutting board, but then they’ve also been exposed to a large variety of vegetables and recipes, so they’re also going home with the confidence, and the basic skills that really make a huge difference,” she said.
Lynchburg Grows participates in Virginia Fresh Match, a program that doubles the value of SNAP benefits when they’re used to purchase fruits and vegetables. More than 1,000 locations participate in Virginia Fresh Match across the state. The program was launched in 2011, along with an initiative to enable SNAP recipients to use their benefits at approved farmers markets.
“We are all better off when families can afford fresh, healthy food,” said Figueroa in an August news release. “For 15 years, this program has helped people stretch their SNAP benefits, supported local farmers, and strengthened communities across the Commonwealth. As federal changes create new challenges, Virginia will keep working to protect access to nutritious food and build on what we know works.”
Lynchburg Grows’ Executive Director Shelley Blades said her nonprofit is always seeking new ways to remove barriers to access to produce, such as offering a scholarship for community members to get weekly shares of seasonal produce for free, making sure that prices in the farm store are not higher than prices at the grocery store and donating thousands of servings of produce to local organizations each year.
“Healthy, nutritious food is a human right, and so our goal is just to meet everybody where they are,” Hardwicke said of her farm in Floyd. “Anybody that needs us can come, without an income statement or anything else.”
Her nonprofit provides an on-site food pantry and mobile delivery service for those who don’t have transportation to the farm.
“If we can improve somebody’s nutrition, if we can improve their health because of food, then that’s the next step to improving something else in their life,” Hardwicke said.
Shrader said food pantries aren’t an option for everyone, especially in rural areas where they are few and far between and for working parents like her who have schedules that may not match with pick-up windows. Plus, pantries sometimes lack the fresh produce that Shrader prioritizes on her list to keep her kids and herself healthy.
Shrader said she’s able to purchase fresh produce with the help of fruit and vegetable benefits from the federal Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known as WIC. The $60 she receives for her family every month is spent fast for bags of apples and potatoes that are staples in her kitchen. Red peppers are her kids’ favorite, but they can be a “delicacy” in a carefully balanced produce budget, she said.
The U.S. House recently passed an agriculture appropriations bill that makes cuts to WIC, reducing the current $8.2 billion budget by about $200 million, Wyatt said. Fruit and vegetable benefits would be reduced, Wyatt said, if the Senate also passes the bill later this year.
Anna Rubenstein contributed reporting for this story.
