By Tim Rowland | Contributing Writer
Three weeks before Thanksgiving, a traditional time of bounty, food was a big topic of discussion in Essex County for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of turkey size or the relative efficacy of adding marshmallows to the sweet potato casserole, nonprofits and government agencies were worried that there wouldn’t be enough food to go around to families that were already stretched to the brink.
Food banks had been affected by cuts of $420 million in Local Food Purchase Assistance, and $500 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program. Then came the government shutdown, which interrupted direct payments to low-income individuals, who buy food with a debit card under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Less commented upon, but equally impactful was interruption in the Home Energy Assistance Program. “We were worried that people would have to choose between food and heat,” said Kim Trombly, Director of Community Impact for the Adirondack Community Foundation.
But the near-crisis demonstrated the Adirondacks’ flexibility and giving nature, as special nonprofit programs kicked in and individuals, communities and governments recognized and responded to the challenge.
“When we were hearing from our partners that there was increased need because of cuts or pauses with the government shutdown, we recognized there was a need for urgent response in our community,” Trombly said.
So the foundation activated its Special and Urgent Needs (SUN) Fund, a fast-response granting program for community crises. A call went out to donors alerting them to the need, and the result was a flow of funds that could quickly and efficiently be distributed to community pressure points.
The foundation wound up sending an average of $1,500 apiece to 36 organizations, Trombley said. The money was used in a variety of ways, including direct purchases of food by food pantries, school backpack programs, community meals and filling grocery carts.
For those who were hearing about cuts to food programs through the news, SUN offered an opportunity to respond. “We heard from our donors that they were pleased we had opened this up, that they were looking for ways to direct their philanthropic dollars out to the community quickly,” Trombly said.
If there was a silver lining to the SNAP pause, it was that it sharply drew attention to an issue that had been building. “In a strange way the SNAP pause increased the visibility of the need for food in our community,” Trombley said. “Yes, the SNAP pause was an acute need, but they’d been seeing increased need for months.”
That’s because food wasn’t the only problem on their minds — struggling families were also facing cuts or threats of cuts to housing and energy programs at a time when costs were compounding. As a result, the foundation was hearing from food organizations that were worried their money wouldn’t hold out through the end of the year. “This catalyzed extra giving which met the needs of the community,” Tromply said.
Essex Food Hub Opens Community Coolers
Lindsay Willemain, Executive Director of the Essex Food Hub, which connects farms, foods and consumers, said the holidays are a traditional time of giving, so that helped ease the pressure.
The Hub also opened a community cooler and freezer that people could access, no questions asked, and without even having to interact with a staff member.
“There are a lot of singular efforts that people make to support people in need over the holidays, which are great,” Willemain said. “And I think that might, for some pantries, actually lead to less demand from them. Also, the Regional Food Bank launched a great program this year that got Thanksgiving meals to a lot of Adirondackers, and people are gathering a little bit more, which helps with food insecurity during the season. So since the holidays have finished, actually, our community cooler is a lot more active.”
Like Trombly, Willemain said demand had been growing toward the end of the year, a problem that was somewhat masked by holiday giving. To avoid discomfort, consumers don’t have to sign in to receive food, so the Hub measures community needs by the poundage of food it delivers. “Things were really, really high in November, and then they slowed down quite a bit around Thanksgiving and through Christmas,” she said.
UPDATE:
As of February 10, 2026, Essex Food Hub is currently finding more long-term funding for the initiative as the resource has proved valuable to the community. Anyone looking to stop by the community fridge/freezer should check with them before visiting. February 16, 2026, will be the last stocking date until further notice.
Essex County Food Access Assistance
Essex County Supervisors urgently responded to the pause by directing a $20,000 appropriation from its hotel-motel tax fund to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County. The funds were immediately distributed to food pantries across the county.
Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County (CCE Essex County) also launched a portal on their website to facilitate giving and allow donors to send money to a food pantry of their choosing. Among those food pantries and organizations were Essex Food Hub, Adirondack Community Action Programs, Inc., Craigardan, and township food pantries and shelves.
In part, these systems fell seamlessly into place due to lessons learned during the Covid pandemic, said Elizabeth Lee, Executive Director of CCE Essex County.
“We have many of these collaboratives and partnerships that have been building as scaffolding for moments like this,” Lee said. “We’ve been meeting regularly and we engage in projects together — and it’s moments like these that you realize how important maintaining those ties are. In our case, it allowed us to mobilize to get food to all 18 towns in Essex County and move over $24,700 to food pantries and shelves who were able to feed their neighbors. Everybody could be a part of the effort, enhancing existing ties between our partnerships.”
Local farmers play a role through such agencies as CCE and ADKAction which, through its Farms to Families program, gets locally grown food to local families in need, including Thanksgiving bounty for 125 families in Indian Lake.
The challenge, Lee said, is keeping up the momentum as the holidays fade. “People feel very generous in the month of December, but hunger is a day to day experience that doesn’t go away,” she said. “And it is a challenge for everybody in the food system to realize that somebody is hungry today.”
Neighbors Stepping Up
Cheryl Gill, Director of the Jay Wilmington Food Pantry, said regional food inventories were lower over the holidays, but have since bounced back. In the meantime, the community stepped up to take advantage of a strong food infrastructure that was already in place.
In many cases, donors weren’t looking for thanks, they just wanted to help — a volunteer had to keep an eye on the food pantry’s doorstep, so anonymous donations could be moved inside out of the weather.
“We truly saw neighbors helping neighbors,” Gill said. “People were calling us up saying, ‘what can I do to help?’ You know, there is so much negativity about people today, so it was really gratifying to see so many people stepping up to help. They all came together and we managed to make it through.”
Accessible Information for All
In addition to donations to food pantries, the SNAP pause increased the importance of ensuring that community members had access to information about where and how to get food. The Well Fed Essex County Collaborative is a group of organizations serving Essex County, including the Essex County Health Department, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County, AdkAction and the Essex Food Hub. The Collaborative’s mission is to increase access to healthy food for all Essex County residents through mutually reinforcing partnerships.
The Well Fed Collaborative responded to the delays in SNAP by updating the map feature on their website to include food pantries, Office for the Aging congregate meal sites, community organizations offering free or low-cost meals, and businesses accepting benefits similar to SNAP that could help households fill in some of the gaps left by the SNAP pause. The updated map serves as a resource for anyone looking to get food or food assistance in Essex County.
Community Resources
Those interested in helping can find more information about the agencies that are addressing food insecurity throughout the county at the Well Fed Essex County Collaborative.
AdkAction maintains a broad number of food-security projects, from debit cards for farm fresh products to community gardens; learn more here.
Donations to specific food pantries can be made through Cornell Cooperative Extension of Essex County.
