even with extra help from the state New Jersey is still seeing a predicted hunger crisis families are struggling to pay for basic groceries the combination of food price inflation and the end of federal SNAP benefits is putting basic items Out Of Reach for more Shoppers in turn they're leaning on food banks to fill in the gaps Raven Santana reports as part of our ongoing series hunger in New Jersey everything has gone up I mean uh the little 70 or 80 dollars that I get on the food stamp it'll go within like maybe one shopping and then you're you're out again so this is important Newark resident Michael Bosh's sentiments were echoed by lines of people who waited for one of these boxes filled with food you got two packs of string beans got potatoes the cities drive up and go food distribution event here in Newark comes as more residents are turning to food drives like this and the state's food pantries after the Federal Emergency SNAP benefits expired in March the Murphy Administration and legislative leaders helped offset the cut increasing the minimum stamp payment to Residents in the state to 95 dollars per households per month but even with that increase most families here are still getting much less than they had been during the last few years over a thousand people gathered here on Chancellor Avenue hoping to receive one of those boxes some of them waiting in their cars as you can see down to that light some of them even water and foot waiting on that line there that extends to the next quarter I know one of the ladies over there and she told me about it and I told my friends about it and everybody but it's beautiful everything's beautiful well you definitely tell your friends because the lines all the way down the block you got that right so tell me a little bit about how is this going to help you it's going to help me real good if things is going up but my money in your pocket are you working it's still now food pantries cannot make up for the loss of SNAP benefits and other critical nutrition Federal nutrition many many food pantries in our state operate on a shoestring budget they rely primarily if not solely on volunteers um it has been it is very difficult for the pantries to try to fill in the gaps how do you raise the food price and then cut the SNAP benefits Treehouse cares Pantry founder Tanya veltz expects that more people will become reliant on pantries as they discover they're getting less than before and their SNAP benefits at the grocery store we may have about 150 to 200 people it's an estimate I'm I'm expecting at least about 200 people to show up today and this is one of our lighter days and pantries are already starting to see this demand ramp up the pandemic relief has one to get so yesterday I made a decision to open up one of our um pantries our satellite Pantry another evening a month to accommodate Working Families so we're doing this we're doing the work while we're feeling it Advocates now say the concern is that the impact will be felt by children who are out of school for the summer and who no longer will have access to school meals this in turn putting an additional demand for food on pantries for energy Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana funding for hunger in New Jersey has been provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation working with others to build a national culture of Health that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being [Music]