By Rosemary Ford and Caitlin Agnew
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
Food insecurity. According to the 2025 Feeding America Report, one in nine New Hampshire residents face hunger. What does that mean? And how did those who rely on government assistance find help in the midst of the government shutdown? Here to discuss this and more is Elsy Cipriani, executive director of the New Hampshire Food Bank.
Melanie Plenda:
Can you explain what the New Hampshire Food Bank is and how it functions?
Elsy Cipriani:
The New Hampshire Food Bank is the only food bank in the state. The simplest way to think about us is that we are the center of a network to relieve hunger. We are a program of Catholic Charities New Hampshire, and at the same time, we are one of more than 200 food banks across the United States that partner with Feeding America.
Something that probably people don't know about the New Hampshire Food Bank is that we don't do a lot of direct service because we are part of a big network of partner agencies, and these partner agencies are soup kitchens, emergency shelters and food pantries. Most of the food distribution takes place through our partner agencies, and we are making sure that they have enough food to feed their communities.
Melanie Plenda:
How did the Food Bank operate during the government shutdown? Did things change? Did you have to pivot in some way?
Elsy Cipriani:
It was an incredible, challenging few weeks for us. When the federal shutdown occurred, the state's SNAP benefits, which is the food stamp program, were in jeopardy for the month of November. Thousands of families who relied on SNAP were in a state of confusion. One of the things that the state of New Hampshire did, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services, was put together a contingency plan, and they asked the New Hampshire Food Bank to execute this plan.
Then we rallied all our partner agencies across the state. We put together SNAP distribution points, either through mobile food pantries or through specific pantries and different communities, making sure that we cover different corners of the state. We did this for two weeks.
This crisis showed just how many of our neighbors are just one emergency away from suffering from hunger, and from suffering from poverty or entering into poverty. We continued these efforts for another week, just to make sure that we provide extra relief for families and individuals in New Hampshire. But again, this is something that happens all year-round. Hunger is something that people in New Hampshire are experiencing.
As you mentioned in the beginning of the show, one in every nine people in New Hampshire are facing food insecurity, and the number is even worse for children. We are talking about one in every seven children in the state facing food insecurity. When we look at the North Country, we are talking about more than 20% of children are facing food insecurity.
Melanie Plenda:
What can you tell us about food insecurity in New Hampshire? How have things changed at all in recent months?
Elsy Cipriani:
Food insecurity means that someone doesn't have consistent access to enough food to live a healthy lifestyle. What has changed is the pressure on families. Families and individuals across the state are faced with impossible challenges. They have to choose between heating, food, clothing for their children, and more. One of the things that we have seen, particularly this past year, is that all these challenges, federal cuts, cuts to the SNAP program and the government shutdown are just creating an incredible amount of stress and confusion for our most vulnerable populations. The people that are most affected by all these changes and all these events are our children, senior citizens and people living with disabilities.
Melanie Plenda:
What does food insecurity look like, and who does it affect?
Elsy Cipriani:
One of the things about food insecurity is that it can be very invisible for people. Let's think about our family budget when we are going through financial hardship, the first thing that we cut from our budget is food, because it's the most flexible thing that we can play around with. We have to pay rent or mortgage, we have to pay utilities, but food is something that we can play around with. So a lot of people go to the stress of eating less, sacrificing themselves —- especially for parents, sacrificing themselves by not eating so their children have some food. We don't see that — they can be our friends, our neighbors, people in our community — but just because we don’t see it, it doesn't mean that they are not suffering from food insecurity.
Melanie Plenda:
Can you tell us more about the programs of the Food Bank? Let’s start with the New Hampshire Feeding New Hampshire Program, which purchases food from local farms. What does this process look like across the state?
Elsy Cipriani:
New Hampshire Feeding New Hampshire is one of our favorite programs. It's definitely a win-win situation. We use funds to help our partner agencies buy fresh and nutritious food, like produce, protein and dairy directly from local New Hampshire farms.
One of the things that we do besides buying nutritious food and supporting local farmers in New Hampshire, is that we also provide small grants to our partner agencies so they can do their own purchasing because we know that many of these local food pantries and soup kitchens already have their own partnerships and they all work in relationships with people in their community and the farmers in their community. So besides us purchasing all these nutritious food for local farmers, we also give small grants to our partner agencies so they can decide what to buy, how to buy it, and support the local communities.
Melanie Plenda:
What about the Cooking Matters program?
Elsy Cipriani:
This is a hands-on program that really empowers families and individuals to learn how to cook or to improve their cooking skills, and is mostly targeted to SNAP recipients. One of the great things about this is that we try to use, during our cooking demonstrations and our classes, anything that families will buy with their benefits. We try to show people that even if they are on a budget, on a limited budget, they can still cook healthy, affordable and nutritious meals.
Melanie Plenda:
In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was cutting the annual food insecurity survey across the nation. Since this data usually assists in predicting hunger demand and securing funding, how will the New Hampshire Food Bank pivot in the future without it?
Elsy Cipriani:
That was a significant loss — not just for us, for all food banks across the United States and for Feeding America, because the data that they produce every year relies a lot on the survey.
As a network, we have had some discussions this past September with Feeding America and many food banks across the United States about how we can overcome this challenge. One of the unique things about food banks is that we are in a position where we already gather a lot of data from the people we serve. We have the technology and we have the capacity to gather day-to-day data of how many people our partner agencies are serving and where the need is. So one of the things that we need to get better in New Hampshire is using that data now that we are not going to have resources from the USDA. But that's going to take time, so definitely, there is going to be a gap in information, and there is going to be a challenge until we can reach the point that we can make better use of our own data.
Melanie Plenda:
Is it true that in November and December that the Food Bank receives the most support and donations, due to the holidays? Is it enough? And what about the rest of the year?
Elsy Cipriani:
Yes, that’s true. We receive the most donations, volunteer requests and food drives during November and December. But the truth is, hunger is a 365-day-a-year problem. The need for food relief and hunger relief doesn't end on Jan. 1. In fact, our donations often drop significantly in the beginning of the year.
I also want to highlight the summer, because the summer is a very tricky and challenging time for us when we talk about food insecurity and the different causes for food insecurity. One of the main causes of food insecurity is disruption of some systems, and the school system is a great example. Many children rely on going to school to eat, and when the summer months come they don't have that access, and they may face food insecurity. So we do see donations usually drop during the summer, so we’d really welcome the community to take a look at that and think about that during the summer we do run a good number of summer programs across the state. We partner with the school districts to make sure that even during the summer, children still have access to nutritious meals.
Melanie Plenda:
What can New Hampshire residents do to support the New Hampshire Food Bank and their neighbors facing hunger, now and in the future?
Elsy Cipriani:
There are three specific ways in which people can help the New Hampshire Food Bank or their local food programs. Donate funds — go to our website or to the local food pantries. Volunteer — you can look at our website. We have many volunteer opportunities every week, and you can also host a food drive, and that food drive can benefit the New Hampshire Food Bank. You can contact us and you can drop the food drive items at our location, and you can also support your local food programs.
Melanie Plenda:
Thank you Elsy, for joining us today.
“The State We’re In” is a weekly digital public affairs show produced by NH PBS and The Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University. It is shared with partners in the Granite State News Collaborative, of which both organizations are members. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.