A couple of decades ago, Leilani Martin stopped by Poverty Resistance maybe once a year. She started visiting the Casper food pantry off and on in 2018 or 2019, she said — just when money was especially tight. 

Now, she drops by just about every day. 

“I just hope things get better,” Martin said Thursday morning, cradling a jug of water in each arm. 

As inflation drives prices up and pandemic relief programs come to an end, more and more Wyoming residents are leaning on food pantries to get by. 

“We went from serving about 40 hot lunches a day to about 80,” said Poverty Resistance’s owner, Mary Ann Budenske. 

Yet changes to federal funding, supply chain issues and dwindling donations have left food pantries with less inventory to go around. 

Lunchtime at Poverty Resistance starts at 11 a.m. On Thursday, the main course was a Lunchable — the prepackaged lunch meal that usually comes with some deli meat, cheese, crackers or mini pizzas. 

Also up for grabs: chips, cake slices and frosting (packaged separately) and onions. There were some boxes of fruit toward the back of the room, too, plus refrigerators with milk, beets, lettuce and kale. 

Poverty Resistance usually has much more variety, volunteers said. But their guests were just grateful for something to eat. 

Wyoming food pantries are supported in part by The Emergency Food Assistance Program, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The federal program got an additional $1.2 billion in federal coronavirus relief to help keep struggling Americans fed. 

“During the pandemic, we had extra food,” said Corrine Livers, an administrator for the Department of Family Services, which handles the program for Wyoming. The extra funding expired earlier this summer. 

Now, after a time of plenty, Wyoming’s food banks are facing what seems like famine by comparison. 

Joshua’s Storehouse — located just up the street from Poverty Resistance in Casper — had to close early one day a couple weeks ago due to a lack of inventory. 

“We have no cereal, no crackers,” said Stephanie Miller, president of the food pantry’s board of directors. “Dry foods, we’re really short on.” 

The food pantry, like some 160 other organizations throughout the state, relies on The Food Bank of Wyoming to help keep its shelves full. 

The Evansville-based organization is in charge of distributing food the Department of Family Services buys through The Emergency Food Assistance Program. The agency expects to receive $388,900 from The Emergency Food Assistance Program for the 2023 fiscal year, Public Information Officer and Ombudsman Clint Hanes said in an email. 

The state got about $654,100 from the program for fiscal year 2022. Food from that program accounts for only 23% of the Food Bank of Wyoming’s total inventory, said Rachel Bailey, the organization’s executive director. 

And food pantries have to opt-in to get it — just about 35 of the food bank’s 160 partners participate in The Emergency Food Assistance Program. 

In other words, the dip in federal funding directly affects only a slice of organizations to which the Food Bank of Wyoming distributes. 

Still, the changes have come with some unexpected supply chain hiccups. The food bank was expecting a delivery of fresh produce through the program in June, but as of early August, it still hadn’t been delivered. 

All the Food Bank of Wyoming received in June from the program was grapes, Hanes said in the email. 

“What’s happening on the federal level is that commodities are not being purchased because of high prices, supply chain issues and other things that are happening,” Bailey said. 

Livers, the Department of Family Services administrator, said she wasn’t aware of any issues facing Wyoming’s August orders from The Emergency Food Assistance Program. 

Outside of the federal program, the Food Bank of Wyoming’s also getting less supply from some of its other partners, like grocery stores and food manufactures, Bailey said. 

Grocery stores are keeping food on their shelves longer, for one. 

Manufacturers are being more conservative, too, Bailey said. 

Sometimes, the foods that end up being donated are experimental products that fail on the market. But companies aren’t testing new products as much right now, Bailey said. And they’re less willing to bin them just because they’re not popular. 

In May, the organization distributed 957,004 pounds of food. 

In June, the Food Bank of Wyoming distributed 766,542 pounds of food — about 20% less than the month before. 

Joshua’s Storehouse relies on partners in the community like restaurants and churches to supplement what it gets from the food bank. Lately, those groups haven’t been giving as much, Miller, the organization’s board president said. 

Individual donors seem to be more careful about what they part with, too. The food pantry held a food drive at a local Albertson’s grocery storehouse a couple weeks ago. 

“I noticed people giving us a lot of stuff that was on sale,” Miller said. 

Increased funding to The Emergency Food Assistance Program was just one part of the coronavirus pandemic safety net. Several other enhancements have since unraveled, too. 

The USDA had expanded benefits for families on SNAP (colloquially known as food stamps) and relaxed some of eligibility requirements. In Wyoming, those changes officially expired in April. 

Bonuses to a handful of other major federal programs — like unemployment benefits and Child Tax Credit, for instance — have also been reversed. 

One pandemic relief initiative that’s still widely available in Wyoming is the federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which the Department of Family Services oversees. Under its latest wave of funding, the program has up to $152 million in assistance to give out by 2025. 

The decreases in assistance come amid a year of burgeoning inflation. The Federal Reserve has hiked up interest rates in an attempt to cool down the economy, offering Americans some relief.