According to new data submitted by Foodlink’s network, local requests for food assistance are hitting all-time highs.

Each month, local food pantries and meal programs within Foodlink’s membership network record the number of people who visit and ask for help. They tabulate the number of adults, seniors and children served, and submit those statistics to Foodlink each month.

Data submitted to Foodlink for August and September represented the two highest months of client visits in our recorded history. During both months, there were more than 175,000 visits to local food pantries and meal programs throughout Foodlink’s 10-county network. The previous high was recorded in January 2024 (172,027). The numbers do not represent unique people — rather the number of times a request for assistance occurred.

A range of factors are contributing to the elevated need, including thousands of local residents losing their SNAP benefits this summer, and the high cost of food and fuel driving prices up for all consumers nationwide.

Check out the chart above for a comparison of the first nine months of this year — which has seen a steady incline for nearly every month since February — compared to the last couple years.