Got any spare cans of vegetables? Send them to your local food pantry. They all need them.

The people who run food pantries in the Illinois Valley typically need donations of cash rather than food, but this year is a little different. Jan Martin, executive director of the Hall Township Food Pantry in Spring Valley explained it this way: the food banks are as depleted as she is.

Since the beginning of October, we’ve had 92 new families and the majority of those families do include children

—  Marissa Vicich, Community Food Basket, Ottawa

Martin certainly needs monetary donations – she’ll put every last dime to good use – but she needs in-kind donations more than in years past. She cannot buy as much from the regional food banks, which are reeling from government cutbacks as much as she is.

“It’s devastating,” Martin said. “I have bare shelves in my warehouse and that’s never happened before, even during COVID.”

Food pantries throughout the Illinois Valley report the same problem. Months of federal budget cuts have pared or eliminated grants and, in turn, depleted the regional food banks. Local pantries still need cash but they need direct donations of non-perishable foods to supplement what they can’t get from the regional food banks.

It could scarcely have come to a head at a worse time. Thanksgiving is approaching and Martin is fielding daily calls from families seeking holiday help. She’s bracing for a 15% increase from last year’s holiday demand, “and we’re still signing people up.”

At the Community Food Basket in Ottawa, Marissa Vicich agreed that she, too, is seeing an unhappy trifecta of less food from USDA Commodities, less food for purchase from the food banks and more families signing up.

“There’s a lot less to go around,” Vicich said. “Since the beginning of October, we’ve had 92 new families and the majority of those families do include children.

“I would say the largest surge was at the very beginning of COVID, but this is definitely going to be comparable.”

It’s the same story in Peru. Mary Jo Credi is executive director of the Illinois Valley Food Pantry and she’s watched with dismay as the feds have slashed critical funding over a roughly nine-month span.

The IV Food Pantry was ticketed for a $550,0000 grant – needed not only to meet rising demand but to move into a larger space – but in March she got a call saying the grant was rescinded. Meanwhile, shipments from the food banks have tumbled 80% over the same span.

“It’s a lack of funding,” Credi said. “The government shut down so many federal programs that we rely on.”

Meat is most scarce and Credi is working the phones trying to procure turkeys for an estimated 500 Thanksgiving meal kits. Credi hopes to meet her goal but she’s worried about new applicants: 50 new families have signed up for help since Oct. 1.

“They are panicking,” Credi said. “It’s getting scary.”

“Thanksgiving is scaring me.”

At the Mendota Area Christian Food Pantry, executive director Tracy Cooper plans 180 holiday meal kits this Thanksgiving. That’s not only a record for the Mendota pantry but it also represents a three-fold increase from when Cooper started six years ago.

To meet the holiday demand, Cooper is turning to local donors for items she once could procure from the food banks, led by turkeys. Most worrisome, though, is Mendota’s overall demand.

“We’re serving the highest number ever,” Cooper said. “We’ve already seen a huge jump this past month with about 40 new families.”

Demand could worsen depending on what happens to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which helps about one in eight Americans buy groceries.

The Associated Press reported Sunday that the Trump administration said it would not tap about $5 billion in contingency funds to keep SNAP benefits flowing into November. As of Tuesday, there was no resolution and federal food aid was poised to not go out Saturday, Nov. 1, which could increase pressure on local food pantries.

“I’m really afraid of what’s going to happen if they end this SNAP,” Cooper said. “I already have clients who are talking about that and who are worried about that.”

For now, local food pantries are focusing on meeting holiday demand.

Vicich and other food pantry directors need donations of non-perishable foods led by canned goods – tins of vegetables, fruit, peanut butter, heat-and-eat pastas – though Martin and Cooper said breakfast cereal is a screaming need. That’s an unhappy sign of the times: Martin said cereals had been easy to procure from the food banks, but not in 2025.

The Streatorland Community Food Pantry also appealed for canned vegetables and asked donors to bring them to the food pantry anytime during business hours or dropped off at after Streator Home Savings Bank.

None of which is to say that monetary donations will be refused.

At the Western Bureau County Food Pantry, manager Christine Pratt said the pantry has an ongoing need to

“There are some things that are normally available from the food banks that we cannot get,” Pratt said, citing pancake mix and syrup as two examples.

(Pratt is, however, well-situated for Thanksgiving. A local church is is donating holiday meal packages.)

Vanessa Hoffeditz of the Bureau County Food Pantry in Princeton agreed the choices and selection at the food banks are more limited than in previous years but she, too, still can put donated money to work.

More worrisome is the growing volume of new applicants ahead of a high-demand season.

“We’re seeing anywhere from 30 to 50 households a day and we are seeing an increase in new households,” Hoffeditz said. “We do know the demand for that is going to be higher than what we can probably provide.”