Jennifer, a transgender woman and U.S. military veteran, came to Portland in June, after traveling coast-to-coast in search of safety and a fresh start. Here, she continues to work while she looks for stable housing. She has found a supportive community at Rose Haven — a Portland day shelter for women, children and gender non-conforming people.
But that safety comes with a tradeoff: she often goes without food. Jennifer’s goal is to eat the minimum amount she needs each day to avoid physical illness. Rose Haven provides two hot meals a day.
“When you have to decide whether you’ll be safe at night, hunger isn’t a priority,” Jennifer said.
“(Food) should be our top priority, but it’s more like third or fourth. Not because we want it to be, but because our other (priorities) are life and death.”
This experience is not an anomaly. An estimated 530,000 Oregonians face food insecurity each year, according to a 2024 report from Oregon State University Policy Analysis Lab. This represents almost 13% of Oregon’s population.
The Oregon Food Bank reported a 31% increase in visits in 2024, equating to 2.5 million people visiting 21 regional banks and over 1,200 local food programs across the state.
Local organizations that provide low-barrier access to food in Portland also report an increasing number of hungry people each year. For some, visits increase each month.
Around the world, across the country and throughout the state, people are facing increased food insecurity. Rates have been on the rise since 2020, according to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises.
While hunger continues to grow in Oregon due to economic factors and legislative inaction, recent federal changes are also making things worse. Advocates say federal reforms to food assistance programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, will have lasting negative impacts on already vulnerable communities.
Why is hunger increasing?
Things are getting expensive. Everywhere.
As the U.S. economy continues to recover from the pandemic, costs of goods — including food — have impacted people across the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture found that food prices alone rose by 23.6% from 2020 to 2024. The pattern persists. The U.S. Department of Labor found that overall consumer prices in June rose 2.7% from the previous year. And between May and June of this year, prices increased 0.3%.
In April, Oregon’s grocery bills were the eighth highest in the U.S. A study by LendingTree found that Oregonians with an average household income of $108,321 spend almost $10,000 annually on food. On average, this means people in Oregon are spending 9.2% of their yearly income on food.
People in Idaho spend the highest percentage of their incomes on food in the country, averaging 10.4%.
Rising grocery costs affect everyone, especially those who make less than the average income.
Blanchet House provides free hot meals three times a day, six days a week for anyone who goes to its cafe located on Northwest Glisan Street. Multiple staff members said guests have increased.
“It seems that almost every month we set a new record for meals served,” said Emily Coleman, director of programs and services at Blanchet House. “Each year seems to reflect several thousand more meals served than the year prior, and that certainly reflects a growing need.”
In March 2020, Congress passed emergency programs to help people financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That included a boost in SNAP benefits.
While Congress phased out that increase starting in February 2023, advocates say the need for the increase has not subsided.
Barriers to access
Kelly, another guest at Rose Haven, uses a SNAP card and a home and food card to buy food. However, she said the only hot food she gets is from Rose Haven.
Currently, Kelly is sleeping in an overnight shelter in Portland. The shelter does not provide food and she has to leave early in the morning.
During the day, she carries her belongings in her backpack. But some grocery stores don’t allow her to carry her backpack in their stores, Kelly said. She faces a difficult decision, since she usually can’t find a safe place to store her belongings while shopping for food.
Kelly said there are other issues too.
“Transporting food is an insecurity,” Kelly said. “You have to make choices on what you can carry, not what you want.”
Then there’s the problem of storing perishable foods.
Jennifer noted that while Portland has many programs and organizations who give free food to people, finding where it will be distributed and getting there at the right time can consume an entire day.
A guest at Blanchet House, D, said the biggest barrier he faces in finding reliable food is one many living outside say is destabilizing: sweeps instituted by city leaders and carried out by its private contractor, Rapid Response Bio Clean. D said the constant threat of displacement sometimes prevents him from finding enough to eat on a given day.
“It makes it harder to find stability,” D said.
Programs designed to help are in decline
About 770,000 people in Oregon relied on SNAP benefits in 2024, according to the Food Resource and Action Center, or FRAC. That’s one in eight Oregonians.
SNAP is a federally funded program launched in 1939 that provides food assistance to low-income people and families each month. Varying levels of support are based on factors like employment, income and number of children.
“SNAP is one of our most effective programs to reduce poverty in this country, and has been since its inception,” said Morgan Dewey, media and engagement manager at the Oregon Food Bank.
Jose Luis Cuna Vera works at the Oregon Child Development Coalition and volunteers at the Oregon Food Bank in Ontario. Vera is an advocate for food access, especially for immigrant families in his community.
Through his own experience with SNAP, Vera said that while it does provide help, it’s not enough. When Vera and his family used food stamps, he said he could only eat once a day to make sure there was enough for the rest of his family.
Vera also said restrictions within the program can lead to significant deficits in what a family receives each month.
“I also know from experience that SNAP applicants must provide proof of income, and when their income increases by even $10 or $20, the cut in SNAP is significant, and some even lose that aid, and the suffering is very severe,” Vera said.
One in six children in Oregon face food insecurity each year. The FRAC study found that 40% of households relying on SNAP had children.
“Tell me how you explain to your children that today they won’t be able to have three meals a day,” Vera asked. “Only two because services have been cut, or even if mom or dad are holding back on eating so their children can have enough. It hurts a lot.”
Recent actions from the federal government
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” President Donald Trump signed July 4 includes cuts to SNAP and other federal programs, as well as cuts to Medicaid, new immigration enforcement and tax cuts for the rich.
“It’s insulting,” Kelly said about the bill.
Currently, applicants for SNAP must meet minimum work requirements, unless they qualify for an exemption. The exemptions are changing.
Going forward, the 20-hour per week requirement will apply to more people. This requirement increased the “working age” by 10 years, requiring people aged 18 to 64 to meet the work hours to qualify — prior it was ages 18 to 54. The new law adds an exemption to that requirement for Native Americans who receive SNAP benefits.
Additionally, Congress removed exemptions for veterans, homeless people and people formerly in the foster care system. The bill also created a new limit for parents seeking an exemption. Before, parents with children under 18 could be exempt. Now, the exemption is for parents with children under 14.
Coleman and others said many will lose their SNAP benefits because they are unable to work 20 hours every week.
“I don’t know if any of us know exactly what that’s going to look like yet,” Coleman said. “Folks are just going to have to make more and more difficult choices. And all too often, I think the food budget is what takes a hit.”
Starting in 2028, states will be required to cover a share of SNAP benefits — a requirement that has never before existed.
“In a climate that is using a lot of fear and harm to control our communities, (we’re) just making sure that folks know that food is available, that we’re here, we’re not closing our doors, we’re doing everything we can,” Dewey said.
“The need becomes greater and the money becomes less,” said Winter Wagner, director of communications at Our Streets, a nonprofit that makes high quality meals and distributes them daily to local shelters.
Lack of action from state government
During the 2025 Oregon legislative session, lawmakers proposed multiple bills aimed at creating more equitable access to food across the state. None passed.
“We thought that (it) might have been a legislative priority, and we were kind of banking on that,” Dewey said. “It’s disappointing across the board, in addition to all of the really harmful federal stuff happening right now.”
Senate Bill 611 would have established the program Food for All Oregonians. The program would have given immigrant families with young children money for food if they met federal food assistance criteria. Currently, SNAP benefits are not accessible for people who aren’t U.S. citizens. The bill would have bridged that gap in Oregon, but the bill died in committee when the legislative session adjourned in June.
It’s unclear how many people in Oregon will lose their SNAP benefits. The Oregon Food Bank estimates 2,900 Oregonians are refugees, humanitarian parolees and asylum seekers. A 2022 report from the Pew Research Center estimated about 12,000 undocumented immigrants live in Oregon.
“This is particularly devastating because of the cruelty we’ve seen from the federal administration to these communities and a bill like Food for All Oregonians would have protected communities that are directly being targeted,” Dewey said.
In March, the USDA ended a pandemic-era program that provided federal free school lunch to all students. This session, lawmakers did not pass House Bill 3435, which would have continued this program across the state.
The free school meals programs equate to 10 meals that are free to families for their children every week. That can make a big difference for families who struggle with accessing food, according to the Oregon Food Bank.
Public schools will still offer free school breakfast and lunch, but families must meet an income requirement to access it. Some, but not all, private schools will also offer kids free meals.
So far, eight states have adopted laws continuing food programs for all students regardless of income.
“It’s a really critical time for states to kind of explore what systemic and policy-driven ways we can protect Oregonians,” Dewey said.
Organizations trying to help have less to give
“We are in the business of feeding people,” said Caitlyn Tuttle, culinary director at Our Streets.
Our Streets is a Portland nonprofit that started in 2020. One of its programs is Feed the Streets. With the help of volunteers and staff members, the organization distributes between 600 and 1,000 meals per day to shelters in the area to combat food insecurity.
Their meals are “made from scratch with intention and love,” said Tuttle.
Every meal is high quality and delivered hot (unless the dish is meant to be eaten cold).
“It’s not just substance to survive, but something that makes you feel joy,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle’s goal is to bring dignity to people eating the meals. She said she wants people eating them to “feel like you’re having a meal with family.”
While Our Streets is not dependent on state or federal funding, the organization is feeling the impacts of cuts and rising food prices, as well as some of the same struggles shelters and the larger community are facing.
Wagner said many shelters are stretched thin and are cutting back on how many meals they can buy from Our Streets. Additionally, the nonprofit is feeling the effects of inflation and the increasing cost of goods. Ingredients and kitchen staples are the most expensive aspect of the work they are doing, according to Wagner.
Our Streets says they are taking a radical approach to addressing hunger: ensuring that people who need it are getting nutritious and delicious food.
“Even if you don’t have the means to make this transactional, we got you,” Tuttle said.
At Blanchet House, a cafe serves three free meals a day, every day but Sundays.
The cafe mimics a restaurant-like experience. The intention is to uphold the organization’s values of dignity and respect to everyone they serve, according to Coleman.
“I hope it is humanizing in a way that I think a lot of our guests don’t get to see and feel very often,” Coleman said.
The cafe has no barriers to entry. All a guest has to do is wait to be seated and served. During the one-hour meal time the cafe offers, folks are welcome to filter in and out as many times as they want.
Guests at Blanchet House describe the care they feel when dining at the cafe.
One guest was a chef in Georgia, where food was always a big part of his life. At home in Portland, he hasn’t been cooking. He said Blanchet House has provided him home cooked meals that bring him comfort and a sense of safety.
“It makes you feel at home,” the guest said.
Staff members at the cafe said they always serve more people at the end of the month when the money people get from assistance programs begins to run out. Recently, the overall number of meals served has also continued to grow.
A conservative estimate is 30,000 plates served per month and about 200 different people at each meal, according to Coleman.
But while attendance continues to rise at Blanchet House, the cafe is also facing the reality of less money and higher costs. With a big reliance on donations, individual people and grocery stores like Trader Joe’s support Blanchet House. However, Coleman said the organization often has to buy staples like milk, oatmeal, pasta and rice.
“It gets more and more and more expensive for us to be able to provide our services in an economy where those things start to cost more and where a lot of folks are starting to feel the pressure of money,” Coleman said.
“Cooking with what you have”
Advocates warn that food insecurity will continue to rise because of federal cuts and lack of state protections. But there are still people bringing dignity and joy back to food.
Street Roots vendor Tina Drake sold her cookbook, “Cook With What You Have,” at the Street Roots Summer Craft Fair July 26.
Drake wrote the cookbook using personal experience of how to make meals that are practical and nourishing with ingredients commonly found in food pantry boxes.
“At its heart, ‘Cook With What You Have’ is about more than food — it’s about community, dignity and resilience,” the introduction reads. “It’s a reminder that great meals don’t require fancy ingredients — just a bit of inspiration and care.”
The book highlights substitutions rooted in items commonly found in food pantries. Additionally, substitutions for kitchenware and tools are listed with recipes. Ten recipes are in the copies Drake sold at the craft fair, covering breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“No matter your circumstances, remember that good food made with care can nourish more than just your body,” Drake wrote at the end of the book. “Always remember, a good meal need not be expensive to be comforting.”
Note: Jose Luis Cuna Vera emailed responses to Street Roots in Spanish which were then translated by Street Roots using Google Translate.
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This article appears in August 6, 2025.