Broadcast version by Danielle Smith for Keystone State News Connection reporting for the Pennsylvania Independent-Public News Service Collaboration
John Kelly has seen it before: the massive influx of people turning to his food pantry in central Scranton for support. The hunger. The families struggling to put food on the table. The parents who have lost their jobs and don’t know how they’re going to make ends meet.
That was just last year, when about 30,000 people received food from Bread Basket of NEPA’s seven food pantries in northeastern Pennsylvania, up from approximately 20,000 in 2023. Kelly said that the increase of 10,000 people came after the expiration of a federal program launched after the onset of COVID to boost food benefits, resulting in a decrease in the amount of financial assistance people received through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP…