While the rate of food insecurity across Franklin and Hampshire counties dropped by 2% from 2024, with 48% of households having faced food insecurity in 2025, the levels in western Massachusetts continue to surpass those in the east, according to a new statewide report published by The Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.
According to the study, the rate of food insecurity in Franklin and Hampshire counties falls 8% above the statewide average, with 40% of households across Massachusetts experiencing food insecurity in 2025. Rates in eastern counties were at or below 44%, with Bristol County ranking the closest to Franklin and Hampshire counties. Hampden County had the largest food insecurity rate at 53%.
For many representatives of local organizations that are addressing food insecurity in Franklin County, this gap came as no surprise.
“Franklin County does not necessarily have, other than Greenfield, an urban or suburban resource hub. Even in Greenfield, it’s fractured,” said Kirsten Levitt, executive director of Stone Soup Cafe in Greenfield. She added that the agencies in Greenfield address different areas of food insecurity.
Levitt compared the 48% statistic for Franklin and Hampshire counties to the rates before the pandemic, which came to 19% in 2019 across the state.
Indeed, food insecurity has more than doubled since 2019, and that is not a coincidence. The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’ Communications and Engagement Manager Deb Ondo traces the rise of food insecurity to inflation that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. The supply of goods and services became scarce as production stopped and prices did not drop when inventory rebounded.
While food prices have gone up, wages haven’t kept pace. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wage in Massachusetts increased by 4.8% from September 2024 to September 2025. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Consumer Price Index found that grocery prices increased by 3.1% from February 2025 to 2026.
Kristen Tillona-Baker, executive director of the Mary Lyon Foundation that serves western Franklin County through its food assistance program and partners with Ashfield’s Hilltown Churches Food Pantry, claimed that the gaps between household income and the cost of living in Franklin County has led to families making “difficult decisions as to whether or not they’re going to feed their children, feed themselves or pay their electric bill.”
“Either the cost of living has to go down or wages have to increase to help folks afford to live,” Tillona-Baker said.
The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts reports that 68% of pantry visitors cited increasing grocery prices as the reason for their visit, while 37% were visiting because of a decline in wages. As the food bank serving Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire counties in the western half of the state, the organization delivered 17.9 million pounds of food to its 199 partner pantries in 2025.
The lowest earners or people living on a fixed income feel most of the squeeze, but food bank officials have noticed an uptick in the number of food pantry visitors who are ineligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) but still need assistance. Some 75% of families receiving SNAP benefits said they still need extra support, and recipients could soon face bigger challenges as funding cuts and work requirements take effect under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The Statewide Food Access Report found that about 700,000 households statewide experienced “very low food security” in 2025. This occurs when a person must skip meals or go without food all day because they cannot afford it.
“The data clearly shows that hunger in Massachusetts is on the rise,” said Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, a Mass General Brigham division chief, and senior health and research advisor at the food bank. “Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP and WIC (Women, Infants & Children), they also say these programs are not enough.”
Despite the serious need, Ondo said she has found that 80% of the people who visit food pantries feel they are taking food from someone else.
“There’s this myth out there that food insecurity is a personal failure,” Ondo said. “But it’s been our experience that people want to support themselves. Even when food is available, some people don’t want to take it and use it.”
At Stone Soup Cafe in Greenfield, between 525 and 550 visitors stop by on Saturdays for a pay-what-you-can community meal.
Although Stone Soup saw a decrease in diners during the winter, Levitt said the “numbers are climbing again” and she anticipates they will continue to climb.
“Food insecurity does not actually happen because there’s a lack of food available; it happens because there’s a lack of infrastructure and a lack of resources for people trying to access the food,” she continued.
According to Tillona-Baker, the number of people who visited the Hilltown Churches Food Pantry in Ashfield and signed up for the delivery program has “continually increased” over the past year, with the food pantry serving 600 people each month, a number that saw a significant “jump” since passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted cuts to SNAP benefits and narrowed eligibility requirements in July.
With a group of Franklin County residents losing eligibility for these benefits, Tillona-Baker said they’ve sought other avenues of support. This trend collided with other factors like inflation to raise the number of people in need of assistance, she said.
In the first three months of 2026, more than 1,500 households visited the Franklin County Community Meals Program across its four meal sites and food pantry in Orange. In 2025, 5,376 households used these services. In that same period, 711 new households used the services.
Isabel “Charlie” Spencer, the new interim executive director at the Franklin County Community Meals Program, traced this increase to “a steady drumbeat of poverty in the region.”
“In Franklin County, historically, we are an under-resourced, impoverished county,” Spencer said.
With cuts to services addressing food insecurity at the federal level, Spencer said, the program “can’t catch up” to meet the increase in need for supportive services.
“There’d have to be a major shift on a cultural level and an economic level to really make an impact in this region, which is why organizations like the Franklin County Community Meals Program are so essential in the meantime,” Spencer said.
While Spencer stressed the importance of locals understanding the landscape of food insecurity, she added, “We also need people to know that they can help.”
“I know there are a lot of people who are feeling very disheartened and helpless right now,” Spencer said. “If you have it to give, I really recommend rolling up your sleeves and getting into a volunteer role at the Franklin County Community Meals Program or a meal site in your area, because it really does make a big difference.”
