SNAP UPDATE: OCTOBER 2025
Due to the federal government shutdown, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits are expected to halt in November. SNAP provides food assistance to about 42 million (or 1 in every 8) Americans, and 30% of the population of Philadelphia.
What are we expecting?
At Broad Street Love, we’ve already started to see early signs of an increase in food insecurity: in late October, daily meal attendance has been reaching 300-400 people per day, which has included up to 200 people in only the first hour of our daily lunch service alone.
Now, alongside other organizations in Philadelphia, we are bracing for an increase in need. We’re grateful to Carversville Farm Foundation for providing the majority of our fresh food, and for their strong partnership during challenging moments like this.
How can I help?
We’ve had many inquiries about how people can help: thank you.
If you’d like to help with our community meal service or any of our co-located programs, please explore our volunteer calendar. (Please note that due to pre-existing bookings, our availability for group volunteer shifts is highly limited through mid-late December. Kindly give our volunteer coordinator a few days to reply to any inquiries.) We will be monitoring demand and may make adjustments to our meal service as needed to uphold Radical Hospitality to our guests; volunteer opportunities may become available as we work to meet need.
Broad Street Love serves freshly cooked meals tableside; as such we can consider donations of food at scale for our daily meal attendance but unfortunately are not equipped to accept individual items of canned food, dry goods, etc. If you have access to large quantities of food, you may contact donate@broadstreetlove.org; to donate smaller quantities, we encourage you to seek out opportunities with trusted BSL partners such as Philabundance or Share Food Philadelphia.
Many organizations working to address food insecurity (including Broad Street Love) have preferred buying relationships with food vendors: often this means that financial contributions stretch farther than direct donations of product, allow reputable organizations to meet immediate and demonstrated food type needs, and alleviate the overhead burden of sorting and processing large quantities of uncoordinated product, which can not only cost money but also delay efficient delivery to its intended recipients. Financial gifts to Broad Street Love and our partner organizations make a key impact.
Meal Service at Broad Street Love
Broad Street Love believes that meals are about more than food: a meal shared with others is a retreat or respite from the challenges of everyday life, and a place where people can come together to care for one another. To “break bread” with others is to reaffirm one another’s innate dignity and humanity.
Our community meal service is prepared fresh and with locally-grown organic ingredients; tableside service in our beautiful former church sanctuary encourages community between guests, volunteers, and staff. For about 20% of our guests, their meal at BSL is their only meal of the day. A no-barrier service, we do not check IDs or require other documentation. All are welcome.
Broad Street Love centers our work on the fact that food insecurity, housing insecurity, behavioral health issues, and other experiences are interconnected patterns in society, and we shape our efforts in ways to support the multidimensional needs of our guests. Critically, meal service is a gateway to Broad Street Love’s other essential services, offering guests the opportunity to feel safe, connected, and trusting to take advantage of personalized support facilitating longer-term pathways to stability.