By Sofia Modica
Every week in St. Petersburg, people who are employed, earning a paycheck and living above the federal poverty line pull through food pantry lines; They are not who most people picture when they think about hunger.
As the cost of living in Pinellas County continues to climb, driven largely by housing costs that have outpaced wage growth, a growing number of working families are turning to food distributions.
Lorena Hardwick, Chief External Affairs Officer at Feeding Tampa Bay, has seen this trend firsthand.
“These are families that are working, but they’re living paycheck to paycheck,” she said. “They can’t make ends meet. They’re basically one paycheck or one crisis away from potentially not being able to afford the basic necessities.”
The modern food bank movement was built in the 1980s around the logic of emergency relief and as a safety net for the unemployed. The assumption was that once someone found stable work, they would exit the system.
David Himmelgreen, a professor in USF’s Department of Anthropology whose research focuses on food security and poverty in the Tampa Bay region, points to what researchers now call “ALICE” households, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained and Employed, as a growing driver of food pantry use.
Lorena Hardwick puts the scale of this problem into concrete terms.
“In the Tampa Bay region, 47% of individuals living in our area are what we call Alice families,” she said. “So these are families that are working, but they’re living paycheck to paycheck. They can’t make ends meet. They’re basically one paycheck or one crisis away from potentially not being able to afford the basic necessities.”
As of 2022, roughly 25% of SNAP recipients lived in households where someone was working, according to Himmelgreen, and 70% of the working poor rely on the program. He noted that even employees at large Tampa Bay companies are increasingly turning to SNAP and other food assistance.
“It’s not just an issue with people living in poverty, although that’s bad enough,” Himmelgreen said. “We see a wider range of different types of households who are Alice households, and who are probably experiencing food insecurity. Often the first thing to be compromised is food, because you’re going to pay your rent, your mortgage, your utilities, maybe your meds and make compromises like buying less expensive food.”
The range of people showing up at Feeding Tampa Bay’s distributions has surprised even those who work there.
“We’re seeing nurses coming through,” Hardwick said. “We’re seeing military families coming through.”
Shift workers in the region’s tourism and hospitality industries make up a significant share, she added, but the clientele has broadened well beyond any single demographic.
Theresa Fountain has felt the pressure of rising costs, and though she works a full-time job, she finds herself benefiting from the help of food pantries.
“Groceries are very high right now,” Fountain said. “There are several things I don’t buy anymore because of the cost.”
Fountain is one of the growing number of working residents in Pinellas County for whom food distributions have become a consistent support.
Fountain said she believes food banks are essential for some members of the community, adding that for many, it is their only way to access food.
Himmelgreen said the consequences of chronic food insecurity extend well beyond an empty fridge, affecting concentration, mental health, workplace productivity and children’s academic performance. With federal cuts to SNAP now taking effect, he warned that enrollment will shrink and benefit amounts will fall just as demand is rising.
For organizations like Feeding Tampa Bay, the response to this rising issue is just as much about dismantling shame as it is about distributing food.
“These are hard times,” Hardwick said. “If you need assistance, please seek that assistance.”
