November 12, 2025

By Keith Benman
Contributing Writer

Parish food pantries across the Diocese of Ogdensburg are working to keep up with surging demand brought on by the cutoff of federal food stamp benefits to families and the elderly.

Regular funds for the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly called food stamps, ran out Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown. Courts have now ordered the Trump administration to fund the program. As of press time, there was no determination on when program recipients would receive the food assistance.

“A lot of people with a little bit of help from SNAP, and what they make, were able to make ends meet,” said Father Scott R. Seymour, director of Catholic Charities for the diocese. “But now they can’t.”

Many of the people who receive food stamps are the working heads of families, according to local food pantry operators. Other food stamp beneficiaries are the elderly, often on fixed incomes. Left without food stamps so far this month, those are the people now streaming into food pantries to register for monthly food packages or ask for immediate food aid off the shelf.

Since Nov. 1, households coming in for food aid at the Good Samaritan Food Pantry at André Bessette parish in Malone have surged to 25 to 30 per day as opposed to an average of about 20 per day previously, according to Susan Perkins, St. André Bessette parish business manager.

As of the beginning of the month, 227 households were signed up with the food pantry for a regular monthly food distribution pack containing enough for several days of meals. In those households are 129 children. But with 1,389 households in the town of Malone receiving food stamps, Perkins expects the numbers signed up at the food pantry to increase dramatically.

“We just believe without SNAP the ones that haven’t been coming in will come,” Perkins said.

At the St. Peter’s Outreach Food Pantry in Massena, it’s the same story. The phone was ringing off the hook on both phone lines there in the first days of the month as people sought food assistance to make up for food stamps many would have received by now.

Generally, the slowest time for the food pantry is early in the month, according to food pantry director Elaine LaPage. But on Tuesday, 30 people came in to sign up for regular monthly food packs or seeking other aid. That compares to about a dozen that might come in daily at the beginning of a typical month.

Food pantry operators expect that surge to continue all the way through at least the month of November.

Food stamps are not the only way the government shutdown is hurting families, according to Father Seymour. Some states, including New York, have warned distribution of Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Funds will be delayed. That program, commonly known as HEAP, uses federal funds to help pay heating costs for families and many of the elderly in the North Country. The delay comes just as the winter heating season is starting.

And in the Watertown area, civilian employees at Fort Drum are not getting paid. Father Seymour said some have sought aid from Catholic Charities. All of the above government shutdown effects are creating crisis situations for many families.

“That’s been our experience so far,” Father Seymour said. “A lot of people that are struggling with basic necessities – not just food insecurity, but fear of electrical shut-offs, a lack of fuel – people are dealing with all those things.”

Because the food stamp cutoff story has been in the news, people are calling food pantries offering donations, more is being left in collection boxes at churches, and grocery stores are also stepping up donations.

“I think people, when you hear that children are going to go hungry, that really strikes a chord,” LaPage said.

In response to the federal food stamp cut-off, Gov. Kathy Hochul released $65 million in emergency funds to help shore up supplies at food pantries across the state. Good Samaritan Food Pantry in Malone received $2,300 of that money, according to Perkins. St. Peter’s Outreach Food Pantry, one of the largest in the North Country, received $25,000.

“We need to think about others and not just ourselves,” Father Seymour said. “We need to put others and their basic needs first. We all need to work together and come together.”