Food pantry sees rising need, tighter supply
Published 1:56 pm Monday, October 12, 2026
Gas prices have come down recently, but the Washington County Food Pantry isn’t feeling any relief. Director Denise Cada said the pantry is serving more people than usual this fall, and finding food for them is getting harder.
“The food pantry had a large increase in August and September. We had 30 new families that we’d never served before. That’s an unusual number for this time of year,” Cada said. “Along with that, our numbers have just overall gone up this fall … It’s an impactful shortage.”
Cada said the cause is the economy. “The prices are rising on everything, whether it be gas, whether it be clothing, whether it be food or anything else,” she said.
The pantry handled heavy demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Cada said what’s different now is the timing. “Over the last few years since COVID, I’ve learned which months we expect more people than others, and this was an unusual time of year to have that large of an increase, especially heading into the holiday season,” she said.
There is no single type of person in need. “We serve everyone, individuals and families,” Cada said, adding that the pantry tracks who comes in. “When families come in or individuals come in, there’s a check-in process that we go through. So I do keep the demographic information. We have to report that to the USDA,” she said.
So far, the pantry is meeting the demand.
“No one from Washington County is turned away. They get a full pantry. And anyone from the state of Nebraska can get USDA pantries,” Cada said.
A USDA pantry is a smaller supply of food meant to bridge the gap between full pantry visits. “It’s a smaller amount of food. It’s just USDA-qualified food that we get from the Food Bank of the Heartland. Anyone from the state of Nebraska can get that food, and anyone can get that any day the pantry is open,” Cada said. “So let’s say, for instance, we have a family in town whose full pantry for the month didn’t last as long as it should have or needed to … They can come in and get a USDA pantry every day the pantry is open until they come back for their next full pantry.”
If needs are being met, why should the public be concerned? Cada said the problem is getting the food in the door. “I think we have a shortage — like a supply chain issue. It’s hard to get the food. The Food Bank of the Heartland does not have a large quantity of food,” she said. “I’ve been here 10 years. This is the first time I’ve had to outright purchase as much food as we have purchased this year, this fall. It’s just a shortage of food.”
Normally, the pantry runs largely on local generosity. “Our community is awesome. We’re powered by the community. We get a lot of donations from organizations that do food drives. People on their own bring in foods. We get a lot of food from the Food Bank of the Heartland when they have it,” Cada said. “Otherwise, it is something that I do go out and purchase.”
Those purchases are usually made at a discount because of the volume. Not this year. “Companies aren’t really willing to do that right now for whatever reason,” Cada said. “A lot of this was not discounted. It was just purchased.”
Nor does a grocery store simply meet the pantry out back and load up a truck. “It is not,” Cada said of that process. “I order it. I go online … just like you would do.”
Cada agreed that moving food from the store to the pantry to someone’s home is relationship-driven and process-driven, with steps most people never see. Asked whether this fall is a sign of something larger, she said: “From what I’ve seen in the last few months, there is definitely a shortage of food in the supply chain. So we are aggressively trying to ensure that we always have supplies on hand here.”
Cada said help can come right away or over the long haul.
“I could give them a list of food that they could go purchase and bring to us. That would be short-term,” she said. “Long-term, you know, Washington County Gives Day is coming up Dec. 1. That’s a big day for us. That’s our largest fundraiser. I would say give financially that day and then support our store by donating your household goods and clothing and things like that, because we sell those items and use the money to buy food for the pantry.”
Washington County Gives is run by the Washington County Community Foundation.
“The Washington County Community Foundation has been awesome. This is the 10th year they’re going to hold Washington County Gives. It’s a day of giving for Washington County,” Cada said. “They have the nonprofits in the county who want to participate. We sign up. It’s an all-day giving process. They go live many times on social media throughout the day. They encourage giving to the local nonprofits, such as the food bank, the animal shelter, TeamMates — lots of nonprofits in the area. Last year they raised, I think, close to $300,000 on that day.
“They have very generous people who pay for the credit card processing fees that day, so all the money really does go to the nonprofits it’s designated for.”
Cada said people know the pantry exists and understand there is need, but she doesn’t think they realize how much need there is in Washington County, or that it is growing. The pantry provided 230,000 meals in the county last year and has already reached about that number this year, with a full quarter left to go.
“And the need always goes up in November, December and January,” Cada said. “So we are just kind of spreading the word now, trying to get people on board with helping us out.”
The pantry’s Christmas for the Coat fundraiser is coming up as well. “We’ve got Christmas for the Coat coming Dec. 9. That’s always our fun fundraiser,” Cada said. “Our community is always really generous.”
That generosity has already helped this fall. “We really appreciate all of the food drives throughout the year,” Cada said. “We recently had two really big meat donations between the Cattlemen’s Association and Cargill, which really have helped us this fall a great deal. And we know we have other large food drives coming up from the school districts this fall. So we’re looking forward to those.”
