High gas prices, rising grocery costs, and changes in government assistance programs have prompted local Atlanta food banks and nonprofits to sound an alarm as hundreds of thousands of families need food assistance this summer.
In 2020, the Atlanta Community Food Bank, the largest food bank in the metro area, served around 170,000 people per month during the peak of the pandemic. Today, the food bank is serving around 255,000 people per month. More than a quarter of its clients are first time recipients.
What’s more, Black residents are facing food insecurity at higher rates compared to white residents.
Kyle Waide, the food bank’s CEO, says the lines at food pantries across Atlanta and North Georgia are longer than he’s ever seen.
“We’re serving about 80% more people today than we did in 2022 just four years ago, and that increase is entirely a reflection of the impact of inflation and the run-up of housing costs and healthcare costs that are putting more economic pressure on families across our region,” Waide said.
For some residents, food assistance from food banks and charitable organizations have made all the difference in getting through economic challenges.
Leroy, 74, is a longtime Atlanta resident and a client of Open Hand Atlanta, a nonprofit organization that cooks and delivers meals to residents living with chronic medical conditions. The retiree, who preferred not to share his last name, said that although he’s financially supported by Social Security, assistance from Open Hand has helped him and many others not go hungry.
“Open Hand’s two meals per day decreases my need to go to the grocery store. I’m able to handle that one meal, which is breakfast, but lunch and dinner is taken care of through Open Hand’s meals,” he said. “Now if Open Hand’s meals was not there, my grocery bill would be much greater. … It is helping people to live quality lives, and I’m one of those that are greatly appreciative of it.”
Matthew Pieper, Open Hand’s CEO, said demand for the organization’s services is at an all-time high.
“Presently, over 70% of the recipients of the meals that we make from scratch in our kitchen every day, are people of color,” Pieper said. “The economy has exacerbated what has been true all along in all of Open Hand’s 38 years of providing services, which is that the health disparities in communities of color are much greater, and in this time of a really challenged economy, that that disparity is greatly expanded.”
Waide believes food insecurity is also exacerbated by recent changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. A federal policy signed into law in July 2025 expanded work requirements and tightened eligibility rules for SNAP users. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, national SNAP participation fell by 4 million from July 2025 to March 2026.
SNAP enrollment in Georgia is down between 6% and 10%, Waide said, “and that means that there are somewhere between 75,000 and 150,000 Georgians who were participating in SNAP that are not getting those benefits today.”
In 2020, Black people made up 33% of the state’s population and more than half of SNAP participants, according to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
While nonprofits are working to help feed Atlantans as government assistance decreases and everyday costs rise, Pieper and Waide said their organizations are struggling to meet the ongoing increase in demand for food.
Waide said that in order to address the issue, state and federal lawmakers must focus on food insecurity and the cost of living “more urgently and intensively.”
“I think the bigger point is that a lot of things are changing, and almost all of those changes right now are resulting in more financial pressure on low and moderate income families,” Waide said. “Whether it’s increased gas prices, changes to SNAP, changes to Medicaid, all of those changes are making it harder for people to afford to live, and unless we start implementing changes that really make life more affordable for more of our neighbors, we’re going to continue to see an increased level of need in our community.”
