‘Feeling the pinch’: Gaston County food pantry worries as funds dry up with government shutdown

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Mount Zion Restoration Church has been handing out free meals for 22 years, Pastor Rodney Freeman said.

Freeman now runs the church’s program, which is the largest food pantry in Gaston County.

He told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon that after federal cuts in May, the church is trying to feed more people with half the food. And 24 days into a federal government shutdown, those involved in food pantries across the county are starting to worry.

Last week, people waited for hours in a line that wrapped around the church and down several blocks, Freeman said, just for some of them to be told the church was out of food.

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And if the government shutdown continues through next week, more benefits for needy families will run out.

Freeman told Lemon that the church provides food for 1,200 to 1,300 people every Thursday. But last Thursday they had 200 new people sign up for assistance.

“Everybody’s kinda feeling the pinch,” he said.

Mount Zion Restoration Church isn’t the only one feeling the impending struggles either.

Lemon spoke with pantries across Gaston County. Many said they are noticing an uptick in need.

Bread Incorporated told him they are stocking up on baby food and formula to help young children.

Freeman said unlike times of struggle like COVID-19 and standard economic downturn, he has noticed that many of the people in need are working, they’re just not making enough money to keep up with rising prices.

READ: Federal funding cuts leading to crisis in local food pantries

Many of those benefiting from the food pantry are worried that SNAP and WIC, government assistance that supplements food for families in, need will run out on Nov. 1, Freeman said. He has already received warnings from his supporters working in social services.

“Tell your church to be prepared because in the month of November there will be no SNAP benefits,” Freeman said he was warned.

And that dilemma keeps him up at night.

“What are we going to do during the month of November?” he said. “If you can’t get it from the food pantry, we’re out and you can’t get it from SNAP, what are you going to do?”

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