The endless work: How one Syracuse group is trying to meet the demands of hunger

Every Friday morning, dozens of people line up outside University United Methodist Church in Syracuse waiting for what to many is a lifeline: a box of food.

The University Avenue church serves as the distribution point for the Interfaith Community Collective, which provides recovered food for more than 1,000 local residents. 

More than 100 volunteers spend their Friday mornings steadily processing, packaging and handing out boxes of food sourced from the Food Bank of Central New York.

But Collective executive director Galyn Murphy-Stanley said trying to meet the increased demand has been challenging in recent weeks as the federal government shutdown eliminated Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding for 42.1 million Americans. 

The organization’s $100,000 annual operations funded through grants and donations may seem substantial, however, the 43-day government shutdown intensified the strain on already stretched resources.

Murphy-Stanley said all of the 300 banana boxes that volunteers prepare weekly are handed out in just over an hour. Also, they’ve had to limit families of more than four people to one box when they normally would be eligible for a second one.

“I like to solve problems, and I can’t solve this,” she said.