Operators of food banks and pantries in America are bracing for President Donald Trump's tariffs and other White House policies that they anticipate will have a "horrific" impact on their operations.
Trump put a 30-day pause on his tariff threats against Mexico and Canada on February 4. However, once those 30 days are up, Americans might experience price rises on food imported from those two countries, unless the tariffs are renegotiated.
A study from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found 63 percent of vegetable imports and 47 percent of the fruit and nut imports into the U.S. are from Mexico.
The U.S. imported around $38.5 billion in agricultural goods from Mexico, per the USDA, as it is the U.S.'s biggest trading partner.
Newsweek has contacted the White House and Department of Health and Human Services via email for comment.
This will have a significant impact on all consumers, and especially on food pantries across the country which feed 1 in 7 Americans, per a study from the Coalition on Human Needs.
Greg Silverman, the CEO and executive director of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH), spoke with Newsweek about what his nonprofit food pantry and others across New York are doing to prepare for the next four years under Trump.
"We've seen a lot, and we've done a lot, and we are unfortunately ready, willing and able to deal with whatever befalls our community," said Silverman.
Speaking about Trump administration tariff policies, and threats to increase work requirements on Medicaid, and reduce benefits, Silverman said: "There's lots of really horrific thoughts that are just going to lead more people to pantry lines. And these pantries don't have the, you know, we are not the safety net. We can't be."
Silverman said: "Right now, people are afraid. So whether that fear is founded or unfounded, the fear is real. And therefore we want to make sure that we allay some of those fears as best that we can."
"We built a thing called the Roundtable, which is a network of nine of the largest emergency food providers in New York City. So we've been in constant communication, reviewing and sharing standard operating procedures," said Silverman. "We sort of dusted off playbooks from 2017 and then upgraded them related to food distribution models, safety for our customers, safety for our staff, interactions with federal authorities."
In terms of the impact of tariffs on their goods, Silverman said there's only so much they can do to brace themselves.
"There's a question of warehouse size in some ways," said Silverman.
"We can't stockpile years of food, or even months of food, you know, even we were purchasing, you know, tractor-trailer loads of oats and shelf-stable milk already just to feed the need, which gives us sometimes 30, 40 percent discount on the price...so we're not stockpiling, but we're sort of doing our continued data work into, like, all the alternatives of where we could be purchasing products."
He said that while his organization tries to buy as much as it can locally, it purchases a lot of fruit from Mexico and grains and oats from Canada.
One of WSCAH's missions is to feed people with dignity and with nutritious food, so cutting off their fruit supply in favor of processed food is not an option.
Food pantries and non-profits will not only be hit with tariffs but will also have to grapple with volunteers and attendees who are scared of immigration raids.
Silverman also spoke to the larger systemic reasons why people are using WSCAH and other Roundtable providers.
"People are underemployed, paying too much for housing, have poor health insurance, have bad educational opportunities, and so they can't make ends meet, and so we see this day in and day out," said Silverman.
He said: "Frontline anti-hunger work is making sure people have access to healthy food they need to feed their families, and that they do it, get it in a dignified way. And most likely, those folks from that food are not going to stop needing food, right? Unless we can increase benefits and increase wages and get people more affordable housing and have some sort of semblance of a [free] health care system...
"People talk about it as emergency feeding. We've been around for 46 years, this organization. Emergencies don't last 46 years, like unstable and situations do right, situations that are out of people's control."
WSCAH said the kitchen has been in operation for 45 years; this year is its 46th year.
Silverman said his organization is working on advocacy to protect and expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in New York, which helps to feed low-income New Yorkers.
WSCAH itself receives very little federal funding, but Silverman worries for the organizations that do. He said he fears they will not be able to cope without their funding, which will in turn send more people over to pantries such as WSCAH, flooding their demand.
WSCAH already spends $4 million a year on food, and Silverman worries with increased demand and tariffs they will end up needing to spend 10 to 20 percent more, all out of donations.
"The burden on the charity sector to lift, to make up for what the public sector drops, is going to be vast, and they will not be able to handle it," said Silverman. "...I think we are in for a long, painful winter that goes beyond the solstice or the equinox. That's going to be for at least through the midterms. I think we're going to have to just keep pushing to make sure our community gets the food they need so they can try to thrive, and we're going to just keep doing that. And it's not just WSCAH like this is just what frontline providers do."
"We're really people in a really difficult position, and I don't see any, I don't see any short-term solutions coming down the pipe. But that's, you know, in our perfect world we want to see, we want to give people opportunities to thrive, like I used to say, I just want to make sure people can put food at their table and have a nice meal. That's all I ever want."
Update 2/13/25, 2:18 p.m. ET: This story was updated for context and clarity.
