By Adam Daly | October 23, 2025

As the federal government shutdown stretched into its 22nd day Wednesday, staff and volunteers at a Harlem food pantry said the line outside has swelled to record highs — even before federal SNAP benefits are set to expire next month.

At the Emma L. Bowen Community Service Center, a longtime Harlem institution that provides mental health, addiction treatment, and social services, the food pantry has already distributed more than 7,000 food packages by Oct. 21 — double last month’s total, according to internal figures. The center also logged 1,376 new clients this month, the largest single-month increase of the year.

“We’ve seen this movie before, unfortunately,” said Lawrence Fowler, the center’s acting executive director. “We were hopeful that maybe we wouldn’t have to go through this again, but we wanted to be prepared. Already this month, we’ve distributed substantially more bags of food than we did in all of September.”

The pantry, located at 1727 Amsterdam Ave., has been part of the Bowen Center since 1986. Fowler said food assistance has always been central to the center’s mission of “person-centered care.”

“You are not your diagnosis,” Fowler said. “You are a person who is in need of support. Nobody functions well when they’re hungry. Being fed, being hungry — that’s part of the full dynamic of health. Food insecurity isn’t limited to the shutdown.”

The pantry expanded its operating days from three to four days a week after the shutdown began on Oct. 1, when Congress failed to approve a resolution to fund the government. With more than 700,000 federal workers furloughed and paychecks halted, demand has soared.

“We’ve adjusted our days before, during COVID, during the last shutdown,” Fowler said. “Our focus is always on meeting the need. We’ve distributed food as many as five days a week when we had to, and if this continues, that conversation has already begun again.”

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