LOGAN – Cache Valley residents are stepping up big time to help the Cache Community Food Pantry during the national political crisis.
With the political squabble in Washington, D.C. and the talk of cuts in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), food stamps and other programs, there is an uncertainty for people who rely on those programs for food.
Matt Whitaker, the director of the Cache Community Food Pantry, has been overwhelmed at the generosity being shown by people in the valley who want to help.
“The help coming in has had a big impact on our facility,” he said. “I have been humbled by how much food is coming in.”
Volunteers at the pantry are feverishly moving food from one place to another and putting it on shelves for easy distribution.
Some Stakes from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are holding early food drives this weekend and next weekend. Most are doing it on a regularly-scheduled food drive on December 6.
“Currently, we are helping up to 2,000 families a month and we are getting 50 to 1,200 applications a day,” he said. “Money always helps fill in the gaps for what is not donated.”
The food pantry takes anything people want to donate, but there is a special need for jam, canned fruit, canned meat, cereal and Thanksgiving items.
Renae Peterson a volunteer from Providence opens a case of apples for the Cache Community Food Pantry on Wednesday Nov. 5, 2025.
“We have had a couple of anonymous donors bring in checks for $10,000,” Whitaker said. “We also had a couple of ladies go to one of the major discount stores and bring back enough food to fill two of our big bins.”
The food just keeps coming as food pantries in Northern Utah prepare for the government programs to falter.
“I don’t have the words to say how grateful I am for the support we are getting,” he said. “It is something I didn’t expect. I didn’t have to put out there that we had a need. People became aware, not from me calling them. It is a testament of the people of Cache Valley and of what kind of place we live in.”
The food pantry can’t distribute canned goods that have labels that have expired, but they will still take them. Expired canned goods are given to livestock owners who reimburse the pantry for the expired food.
Steve Pitcher and Ben Chee unload a pickup truck full of donations for the Cache Community Food Pantry on Wednesday Nov. 5.
On Wednesday, the Miracle of Agriculture Foundation, the charitable arm of the Utah Farm Bureau Federation, and the Cache County Farm Bureau made a donation of approximately 4,000 pounds of beef to the pantry. The group also made a smaller donation to a local pantry in Rich County. In total, the donations will provide protein for about 800 families for one week in Cache County.
At Sky View High School, students of all grades battled each other in a competition to see who could collect the most food for the food bank.
Some students even pledged to donate some of their own wages to help.
The students learned many Utahns could soon be without food assistance right before the holidays.
Local families are not the only ones that rely on the pantry. The Cache Community Food Pantry supports many agencies in Box Elder and Rich counties as well as senior citizen centers, CAPSA and others.