Washington is deciding — right now — to allow hunger to grow
The cupboards at home were empty. In the fridge, a single serving of chicken and dumplings sat, carefully rationed into two meals a day for four long days. My last few dollars had gone into the gas tank just to get to work, and I was surviving on pocket change until payday.
That feeling — desperation wrapped in shame — is something you don't forget.
Fifteen years later, standing in the Tacoma Dome parking lot as an Emergency Food Network staff member, I watched hundreds of cars snake around the block, each waiting for the team from Eloise's Cooking Pot to place a week's worth of food into their trunk. Their faces reflected emotions I knew well: brief relief, quiet embarrassment, sincere gratitude — and beneath it all, deep exhaustion.
But it's not just Eloise's.
Every day, across Pierce County, Emergency Food Network's 75+ partner programs see the same unrelenting need. Thousands of seniors, families and people experiencing homelessness turn to us — not because they made bad choices but because they've been backed into a corner by rising costs and stagnant wages.
Yet while the need grows, the lifelines people depend on are being ripped away. In March, the USDA slashed over $1 billion from programs that kept food flowing to food banks and schools. The Local Food Purchase Assistance program — which strengthened both local farms and hungry families — was wiped out entirely.
Then another blow: The Emergency Food Assistance Program — the backbone of the federal emergency food system — was gutted by $500 million. Here in Washington, that means up to $25 million lost in food funding in just three weeks.
At EFN, that's not just a statistic — it's 19 food deliveries that won't reach hungry families. It's $500,000 in support for local farmers gone. It's a 40% hole in our Emergency Food Assistance Program allocation, at a time when visits to our network have already topped 800,000 this year — an alarming 17% increase over last year.
And the betrayal isn't just federal.
While both the House and Senate in Olympia fully funded emergency food programs, Gov. Bob Ferguson's budget proposes a $52 million cut to food bank funding. In the middle of a hunger crisis, that's not just bad policy — that's abandonment.
Let's be clear: Hunger is not inevitable. Hunger is a policy choice.
We need our state legislators to hold the line. We need our federal lawmakers to remember who they serve. And we need every single one of you to raise your voice.
Congress is in recess. Your representatives are home. Find them. Call them. Tell them to protect SNAP. Restore USDA food programs. Fully fund emergency food efforts.
Thank the champions — and demand better from the rest. If you've never faced an empty cupboard, I hope you never will. If you have, you know why I'm asking. No one — no child, no senior, no family — should have to survive on hope and spare change. Enough is enough.
Lianna Olds is deputy director of the Emergency Food Network.
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