East Hampton awards $30,000 to food pantries with SNAP benefits expected to end Saturday

The Town of East Hampton on Thursday awarded $30,000 in total to three food pantries, where officials are gearing up for an influx of demand after the expected end of the federal government's food assistance program.

The East Hampton Town Board authorized an “emergency appropriation” of $30,000 during a special meeting on Thursday, granting $10,000 apiece to three local food pantries: the East Hampton Food Pantry, the Springs Food Pantry and the Montauk Food Pantry. The town used money left over in the 2025 budget from a federal nutrition grant program.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, will lose federal funding Saturday as the U.S. government shutdown continues. More than 42 million low-income individuals nationwide depend on SNAP, including 3 million New Yorkers, and more than 160,000 Long Islanders, according to state officials.

At their peak, the three food pantries serve more than 1,000 people every week, officials told Newsday. The pantries are expecting even more visitors when funding for SNAP benefits end Saturday.

“We are terrified of the numbers that we're going to see because of the cuts in the SNAP program — and our numbers are already increasing,” Vicki Littman, chairwoman of the East Hampton Food Pantry, said in a phone interview. “We've seen a lot of new clients coming in every week as we face our winter months.”

Littman said the pantry, located behind East Hampton Town Hall, spends more than $30,000 monthly to distribute food to seniors and others in need. The $10,000 grant “will help us tremendously,” she said.

Alice Houseknecht, director of the Montauk Food Pantry, said in a phone interview that the discontinuation in SNAP benefits means “the demand is greater on not only us, but on all the food pantries nationwide.” The pantry also spends roughly $30,000 per month to serve the area on the tip of the South Fork.

Holly Reichart-Wheaton, director and chairperson of the Springs Food Pantry, said in a phone interview that the organization's costs could balloon from roughly $23,000 per week to more than $30,000, if more people start flooding the pantry.

“Every little bit helps,” Reichart-Wheaton said in an interview. “Let me tell you, it’s getting crazy — absolutely crazy. And we scramble to find out where our funds are coming from and how much more fundraising we have to do ... With the shutdown, any monetary figure that we can get is wonderful.”

East Hampton Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez had some choice words for President Donald Trump on Thursday after introducing the grant resolution.

“The Trump administration made a conscious choice to stop SNAP benefits,” said Burke-Gonzalez, a first-term Democrat who is running for reelection unopposed on Tuesday. “That decision put seniors, veterans, children and working families in communities like ours at risk of going hungry.”

“Here in East Hampton, we reject that kind of neglect,” she added.

Newsday reached out to the White House press office for comment, and was referred to the Office of Management and Budget, which has not yet responded.

A group of 25 state leaders this week sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture, accusing the agency of “unlawfully suspending” the SNAP program.

The town expects more money from the Nutrition Services Incentive Program to come by the end of the year and could provide more to the pantries, if necessary, town spokesman Patrick Derenze told Newsday.