Lower Merion Township is one of Montgomery County’s wealthiest areas, but even residents there worry about having enough food to feed their families, writes Emily Rizzo for WHYY.

Food pantries in Lower Merion Township are seeing increasing food insecurity with SNAP benefit cuts, according to Rizzo. The township’s 2022 community need assessment found that food insecurity was the fifth most pressing need among residents of Lower Merion.

Gigi Tevlin Moffat, director of Narberth Community Food Bank, calls it the “Myth of Lower Merion.”

She said Lower Merion Township residents who are struggling to afford basic necessities are often made to feel invisible, but they are just as much a part of Lower Merion and the Main Line as the wealthier residents.

“There is that myth that everything is perfect and while everything’s good…Pretty good…It’s not perfect,” Moffat said.

Lower Merion is one of the wealthiest areas in the Philadelphia region, but like many areas its residents took a financial hit during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2022 assessment found that 15.79% of respondents experienced a job loss in their households. And of these respondents, half said they had “a hard time making ends meet.”

The federal government’s cuts to SNAP benefits in March have only worsened the financial strain families are feeling.

Read more about food insecurity in Lower Merion at WHYY.

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More on Lower Merion Township.