RALEIGH, N.C. — Feeding America recently released its 2025 “Map the Meal Gap” study on food insecurity across the nation and at a local level. It shows North Carolina had a higher food insecurity rate than the national average, a continuing trend over the past few years.

While the study was released in 2025, the data highlighted is from 2023.

Food pantries through organizations like Celebration Church in Wake County, are helping those battling food insecurity. 

Celebration Church started a food pantry over 10 years ago. 

“We would supply an emergency grouping of food to families, mainly in our backyard and our zip code of 27616. But in 2020, everything really changed,” Ted Scheve, the mission pastor at Celebration Church, said.

Over the years, the church grew partnerships with the community, filling a gymnasium with food for those in need for their drive-thru food pantry. 

“Now we’re serving over 650 families every first, third and fifth Saturday [of the month]. That equates to over 2,000 people every single food distribution,” Scheve said. 

Recently, the group was even awarded a large cooler from Wake County through the American Rescue Plan to help keep fresh foods fresh longer.

“Being able to store lots of food in high volume enables us to empower more people more often and make sure that it maintains a safe ambient temperature,” Scheve said. 

“We partner with Asbury Community Garden. This year we expect to get about 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of a whole variety of different kinds of fresh produce,” George Shaw, a volunteer with Celebration Church, said.

According to the nonprofit Feeding America, one in seven people in North Carolina face hunger, including one in five children. In its report, Feeding America also said North Carolina would need to spend more than $1 billion yearly to meet existing food needs in the state.

“We’re seeing as a food pantry, a food distribution, partner here in Wake County, we’re seeing a number of increase in families that are coming to us to subsidize their food budget on a weekly, biweekly, monthly basis,” Scheve said.

In North Carolina, in 2023, the average meal cost was $3.50, down from $3.91 a meal in 2022, according to the report. Dare, Orange and Avery counties were just a handful of counties in North Carolina to have an average meal cost over $4.00. 

“Some of our pantries, we’re seeing a 40 to 50% jump in the number of clients they were serving per month,” said Sydney Mierop, the Wake County Food Security Program manager.

She says the Wake County Food Security Program started in 2018 with her position being the first-of-its kind in the state. She says while the program does not directly distribute food, it still battles the complex issue of factors feeding into food and hunger. 

“We really look at is how do we build the capacity of the community, how do we identify gaps and then where do we find resources to fill those gaps,” Mierop said.

Celebration Church is just one of their many partners who has also seen an increase of clientele over the years. 

“We don’t serve the same families every single distribution. Anywhere between 10% and 15% of the of the clients that come in, we serve through our distributions are here for the very first time,” Scheve said. 

In Feeding America’s “Map the Meal Gap” study, 62% of North Carolinians were below the SNAP threshold in 2023, compared to 55% in 2022, and it’s expected to continue to rise.

Mierop helps those who may not qualify for SNAP benefits find avenues for help.

“Fifty-one percent of our food insecure don’t have SNAP benefits, and pantry partners are absolutely vital for feeding those communities. We also have programs where we look at, folks who may have applied for Snap and haven’t qualified, and we help them see, maybe you are perhaps eligible, especially our seniors,” Mierop said. “A lot of them get a very small SNAP benefit, but we do help them understand how they can deduct medical expenses and so they can get a little bit more benefits that way.”

Proposed plans from House Republicans suggest changes and possible cuts to SNAP benefits.

Last month, Gov. Josh Stein wrote a letter to Congress expressing his concern of shifting the cost of SNAP benefits from a federal level to the state. In his letter, he said more than 1.4 million North Carolinians rely on SNAP and since Helene devastated Western North Carolina, more than 13,000 people have applied for SNAP benefits as of March of this year.

Spectrum News 1 reached out to Republican and Democratic congressmembers to see how they believe changes to SNAP benefits could affect North Carolina. Congressperson Alma Adams (D), 12th District of North Carolina, replied with the following statement that reads in part:

“Food insecurity is a growing problem in North Carolina and the House Republican budget bill will make it worse. This bill is projected to cut $616 million of North Carolina SNAP funding at a time when the cost of living in our state has never been higher and more families struggle to make the ends meet. They are taking food out of the mouths of our children, our single mothers, our residents with disabilities, our veterans, and our seniors."

Adams went on to say she plans to reintroduce her Closing the Meal Gap Act and said she designed it to protect SNAP and raise benefits “because $6 a day just isn’t enough to put food on the table,” she said.

She explained the bill would give more SNAP benefits to larger households and families with big expenses.

“SNAP isn’t a budget line item — it’s a lifesaving basic needs program that needs to be strengthened for our families,” Adams said.

Mierop reported that direct federal funding cuts have impacted her, specifically eliminating funding for purchasing produce from local farms this year. 

“We also have seen a lot of our partners just seeing a reduction in the amount of grants available and the funding that’s out there to support hunger. Right now, I feel like it’s stabilized a little bit, but what we’re experiencing is a lot of cautiousness and decision making and apprehension to move anything beyond where it is now, because we don’t know if it’ll be sustainable,” Mierop said.

June is also Hunger Awareness Month, and with school letting out, Wake County has partnered with local libraries at nine different locations for events and Summer Meal Programs like the ones at the Fuquay-Varina Farmers Market. 

“A lot of the sites will have activities. And so what we do is we provide promotion for that program to let families know you don’t have to be, eligible for SNAP to come here. You don’t have to be a certain income,” Mierop said.