Early this week, Tim Nistler looked over the fully stocked shelves of the Friends In Deed food pantry in Pasadena, filled with palettes of boxes on the floor and crates stacked almost to the ceiling.
Nistler, director of the pantry since 2013, said this week, and a day before federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits were to go unpaid because of the government shutdown, close to 850 households came through the pantry doors, setting a new record.
“Last week it was 803,” Nistler said. “These are unprecedented numbers for us. Last year, at this same time, we saw around 700 each week. So, it’s a significant jump.”
While Nistler said he sees an increase in the number of people coming for food every year, what is surprising is the jump in the average number of households the nonprofit serves per week.
In 2023, Friends In Deed served 539 households a week, climbing to 626 in 2024, and rising again to 654 households helped every week in 2025, Nistler said.
“We only surpassed 700 households in a week for the first time last October,” he said. “Now, we’ve passed 800 twice. Even during COVID, we weren’t seeing as many people as we have since 2023. With the upcoming pause on SNAP funding, we expect even more families to turn to us for help.”
In California, the federal government’s SNAP program is known as CalFresh. The SNAP food program is entirely federally funded, but is managed by states and administered by counties.
Due to the federal government shutdown, CalFresh benefits — commonly referred to as EBT or food stamps — were expected to be delayed in November, impacting millions of people across the state, including nearly 1.5 million in Los Angeles County and more than 310,000 in Orange County.
On Tuesday, Oct. 28, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors heard reports that the county has been bolstering food pantries, adding food giveaway sites, while granting the L.A. Regional Food Bank $10 million to expand its food purchasing capacity to offset the federal cessation of the program.
Within 12 hours of posting a call for donations on social media, Friends in Deed reports it has received much-needed replenishment of supplies, including its in-demand “gold” items such as canned tuna or chicken, hearty soups, beef stew, chili, pasta and pasta sauce and staples such as peanut butter, cereal, rice, cooking oil and flour.
The pantry has also seen big increases in the number of new people going to the pantry for the first time.
“Last week the number was 40. This week it was 64,” Nistler said. “For this calendar year, we average about 25 to 30 new people in a week. Many of the people that we did have a chance to speak with have referenced that they weren’t expecting to be paid their November SNAP benefits. That means that they won’t be able to get groceries or have enough money to be able to purchase all the groceries they may need. So, they are seeking out food pantries.”
Friends In Deed, which began in 1961 under the Ecumenical Council of Pasadena Area Churches, is an interfaith group that provides supportive services to meet basic human needs for homeless and at-risk people.
The pillars of their work is compassion, connection and dignity to the neighbors its executive director Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater calls “the most vulnerable in our community.”
“Since the government shutdown started, we knew that this was a possibility and we’ve tried to plan accordingly,” Nistler said. “We have a longstanding partnership with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and are one of their many agencies that they provide food to. When we place our order, we’ve made sure to bring in as much shelf stable, fresh produce, and meat/protein items as we are allotted.”
Monetary contributions to the nonprofit stretches each cent since the group gets subsidized pricing, according to Merria Velasco, vice president of development and communications. She suggested ways people can help fight food insecurity, including organizing food drives and picking up extra items on each grocery run.
Community partners such as Food Forward provide a weekly pallet of produce, and volunteers pick up donations from different grocery stores in the area.
Nistler also relies on a local base of support from individuals, groups, churches, businesses and schools that donate food regularly or hold food drives.
“These donations and supports were here before this current crisis and they are helping us through it,” Nistler said.
On Friday, Oct. 31, he said “the amount of deliveries we’ve received from Amazon and cars dropping by has been amazing and heartwarming. Our community continues to step up and help us serve the most vulnerable in our community.”
That mission underlines Nistler’s explanation to a student who asked him why he does his job. The answer, he said, was because “hunger is stupid.”
“What I mean by that is we can talk about global hunger, but it is ridiculous to me that anyone in the United States goes to bed without enough to eat. And it happens every night and to me that is just stupid,” Nistler said. “It’s a simple quote but it really expresses how I feel about it. I’ve known a lot of the people that come for food for all the time I’ve been here. “
The community is made of people of low-income, fixed income, and in some cases, no-income, he said.
“They are just like all of us, except they just need a little help,” he said. “We don’t always know the people in our neighborhood or workplace or school or church need help. We are here to serve them with as much dignity and respect as we can.”
So far, no one is turned away when they show up during the pantry’s operating hours. That may change if the need surpasses their capacity to help, forcing them to draw more specific boundaries, such as first helping those from Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre and South Pasadena and referring others to local food banks near them.
A glimmer of better news came Friday, when last-minute court orders prompted the government to restart funding for federal food benefits.
The orders came in rulings by two federal judges who told the U.S. Department of Agriculture separately Friday that it must begin using billions of dollars in contingency funding to provide federal food assistance to needy families despite the federal shutdown — but gave the agency until Monday to decide how to do so.
Still, the rulings will not prevent disruptions to CalFresh benefits this weekend.
No matter what, staff and volunteers at Friends In Deed are ready.
“We have volunteers that come help weekly out of a sense of service and community,” Nistler said. “I am grateful to be surrounded by so many wonderful people on all sides. Our motto at Friends In Deed is ‘doing together what we cannot do alone.’ I see that every day and it is what gives me hope and allows me to keep doing what I do.”
Friends In Deed accepts donations from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, at 444 East Washington Blvd., Pasadena. www.friendsindeedpas.org.
City News Service contributed to this report.