GOOSE CREEK, S.C. (WCSC) – Every week, dozens of families flock to the Helping Hands of Goose Creek food pantry for everyday products that feed families struggling to get ahead.
For people like Loretta Mitchell, it’s a vital resource.
“I am so proud of what I got today,” Mitchell said. “I have some pita bread, some cinnamon rolls. I have fruits and vegetables. All the healthy food that we need.”
But recently, the pantry’s shelves have become emptier. Executive Director Nicole Franklin says budget cuts at the national level have hit them hard. They get much of their food from a United States Department of Agriculture program, but that program is being scaled back.
“In the first quarter of 2025, we saw a decrease of 14,000 pounds in food that we can distribute,” Franklin said. “So if you qualified for the USDA program, you were getting about 35 pounds of food, and now you’re getting about 20. Before, you could probably make three meals out of that. Now you can probably make two.”
On top of that, a large chunk of their funding to purchase food, about $11,000, is tied up in a grant that is being paused, despite it already being awarded.
If less food and less money aren’t enough, Franklin says they’re on track for a record year on the demand side of things, too.
“We went from 3,600 grocery carts that we distributed to 5,200 grocery carts in one year. So there was a huge influx – about 30%,” Franklin said. “We saw one family come in last month that had lost their job with Boeing because of the cuts. So, what we are seeing is that as cuts happen across the country, more people are coming because they have a need.”
Last month alone, Franklin says they fed nearly 500 families.
Pastor Yolanda White came to the pantry to pick up food for one of her parishioners. She says now is not the time to roll back government support for programs that help feed people.
“Those that make that decision are not in need,” White said. “They probably have never experienced what it means to be hungry or to try to determine how they can either pay their rent so they can remain in the apartment where the housing bill is astounding, or feed their family. Or what it’s like having to decide, do I pay my health care bill? Do I purchase the medication or do I purchase food?”
This weekend is the United States Postal Service’s Stamp Out Hunger food drive. Every second Saturday in May, people can leave items at their mailboxes, and mail carriers will pick them up. It generates thousands of pounds of food for local food pantries like Helping Hands.
Franklin says last year there wasn’t much advertising about the drive, and there hasn’t been any this year either. She says they saw a large drop in donations, going from 10,000 pounds to 14,000 pounds from the single food drive to just around 900 pounds last year. She is hoping this year will be different.
She says getting food on the shelves is a critical problem.
“I think that feeding people is the first way that we make a difference. If everyone’s bellies are full, kids are going to learn better at school. Employees are going to perform better,” Franklin said. “Everything across the board is benefited when bellies are full and families are fed.”
To participate in the food drive on Saturday, all you have to do is leave a box or can of nonperishable food at your mailbox, and the mail carriers will do the rest.
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