Record demand has left Arlington’s largest food pantry with an $891,000 hole in its budget this fiscal year — and it may only get worse.
Almost one out of every 10 Arlington residents, 23,190 people, had an active referral to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) in fiscal year 2025.
Families visited the nonprofit almost 200,000 times during that period — an 8.9% increase from the previous year, according to a recent update on the state of the organization’s finances.
It’s a new record for the decades-old nonprofit, which has been under strain in recent years as factors such as rising housing costs and the end of pandemic-era benefits have made basic necessities harder to afford for many families. AFAC CEO Charlie Meng is unsure where the numbers will go from here.
On the one hand, it’s possible that AFAC is reaching a saturation point. Around 22,000 Arlington residents live in households making less than 30% of the county’s annual median income. That’s about the same as the number of registered AFAC recipients, at this point.
On the other hand, Meng worries about cuts to safety net programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the downstream effects of federal layoffs. He fears that these changes may push more Arlington residents into poverty and make existing AFAC clients more dependent on the nonprofit’s services.
“It really depends on what happens with this administration,” Meng told ARLnow. “They could throw a lot more people down into that 30% AMI, and that’s what I’m worried about.”
No matter what happens, AFAC — which relies on private donations for about 90% of its budget — remains committed to meeting the needs of all of its clients. To avoid dipping into reserves this year, however, Meng said that he’ll need some combination of increased donations or increased county support.
“We’ve had some donors who are just as mad as hell and want to do something, and they write us a check,” Meng said. “I hope a lot more folks get mad as hell.”
Demand is outpacing AFAC’s funding
To meet increased demand this fiscal year, AFAC has increased its budget for food purchases to $3 million — a $1.35 million rise over the previous year, according to a press release.
The nonprofit has ambitious goals for the new year: $5.9 million in financial donations, $3 million in donated food and 50,000 hours in volunteer service. Even if the organization meets these goals, however, it anticipates needing to transfer at least $891,000 from reserves.
“The problem we are now facing is that our expenses are growing faster than we can raise the necessary funding,” the press release said. “This is particularly troublesome as we enter a time when local federal cuts are rippling through the Arlington economy.”
With Arlington’s unemployment rate now at its highest point since July 2021, Meng predicts that low-income working people will be among the hardest hit as terminated federal workers scale back on luxuries like going to restaurants or hiring housekeepers or landscapers.
Cuts to federal food assistance programs, along with Medicare and Medicaid, only make matters worse for AFAC’s clientele, which consists largely of working people, seniors on fixed incomes and people with disabilities, Meng said.
“As that all ripples through the economy, we expect to see … actually, more of the same kind of folks we see now,” he said. “And the folks that we see now are going to come to us more often.”
Even as all of this is happening, Meng said that some backers have had to stop supporting AFAC because they can’t afford to do so anymore. This puts the nonprofit in a tight spot.
“I’m hoping that our donors will continue to support us, but we’re also seeing some softening there,” he said. “We’ve had monthly donors call us up and say, ‘Hey, I just got fired from USAID, and I can’t do the monthly donations any longer.'”
What AFAC needs
More than anything, Meng said, AFAC needs donations right now. Not only is the organization short on funds to buy food, but it’s also short on staffing.
In the past five years, the number of families that the nonprofit serves has increased by over 85%. During that same period, however, its staffing increased by only two employees.
This is part of why AFAC hasn’t been able to open a new distribution site in two years, according to the press release.
“If we are to serve significantly more families, we will need to add additional staff, space, and vehicles, at cost, which will only increase our reliance on our reserves accordingly,” the organization said.
Food donations also help, although Meng noted that this is less efficient, since AFAC can buy food at a lower cost than individuals can. AFAC purchased about 70% of its food in fiscal year 2025, while the rest came from food drives and other donations.
Additionally, the organization needs volunteers. Over 2,300 volunteers logged over 51,000 hours at AFAC last fiscal year — the equivalent of 25 full-time employees.
Volunteers’ efforts are especially helpful since AFAC has a limited amount of funding that it can spend on operations. For instance, all $1.6 million that the organization received from the county last year had to go to food purchases, rather than employee salaries or other operating costs.
Above all, however, AFAC needs cash.
“The biggest thing is, we need money to keep this place going,” Meng said. “That’s what helps us most.”
Overall, AFAC is anticipating difficult times ahead as donors pull back on funding just as client demand may be about to increase. No matter what, however, Meng said he’s committed to continue supporting Arlington residents’ food needs.
“Our mission here at AFAC is to serve everyone who comes to our door in need, and we are committed, totally committed, to make sure that happens — that we can serve everyone,” he said. “And if that means going into our own reserves to make that happen, we will.”
