“A lot of people are just struggling right now,” said Hailey Yost, a Lycoming County resident, who, along with relatives and friends, prepared and delivered 32 warm, homemade meals to households from Williamsport to Lock Haven.

The endeavor grew out of her desire to help during the federal government shutdown, when many SNAP recipients were shaken to learn their November benefits might not arrive unless lawmakers reached a spending deal.

Although benefits were ultimately restored late last week, the disruption underscored how quickly families can find themselves without enough to eat.

“There wasn’t much of a motive behind it,” said Yost. “It was just kind of like, we should help.”

HUNTER SMITH/THE EXPRESS Jersey Shore Area School District alumni, Nash Berfield, left, and Hailey Yost, right are seen in their kitchen in Collomsville, preparing garlic bread for the 32 meals they delivered to community members.

The Central Pennsylvania Food Bank reported that in the first week of November, new households seeking support increased by 65 percent.

During that same period, visits to the food bank by SNAP recipients rose 67 percent and visits from non-SNAP recipients by 26 percent.

Even with the nation’s largest anti-hunger program back on line, rising grocery prices and reduced federal support means the need for food assistance is expected to continue growing. Over just the past two years, food insecurity in the region has jumped 44 percent.

So Yost and her fiance, Nash Berfield, with the help of Bella Grube, Jerome Yost and Tyler Miller, rolled up their sleeves and started planning, cooking and packing meals anyway.

“Originally, I wanted to do Thanksgiving, but Nash kind of reined me in,” Yost said.

PHOTOS PROVIDED Above and below, examples of the meals the group prepares are shown.

Since many churches and nonprofits already organize Thanksgiving dinners, Berfield suggested they focus on something more sustainable for a small group of volunteers.

“Anybody who wanted a free Thanksgiving meal would be able to get one,” she said. “So we were like, let’s do something different.”

They settled on hearty comfort food: plates of chicken alfredo or spaghetti, served with garlic bread and chocolate chip cookies.

“A lot of people reached out, and they had a lot of sad stories,” said Yost. “Honestly, I was expecting maybe two or three people to reach out. I wasn’t expecting this many.”

Still, she said she’s grateful that people were willing to ask for help rather than go without.

PHOTOS PROVIDED Above and below, examples of the meals the group prepares are shown.

“I’m really happy that they did though, because being able to deliver it — I mean the one lady doesn’t have a car or means for transportation, so how is she getting to a food bank?” Yost said.

“Some of them are large families that didn’t have enough, or a lot were the elderly. We have one single lady, and she is legitimately 94,” said Yost. Others still lacked power in their homes, and at least one meal went to a local homeless man.

While most stayed close to home in the Jersey Shore community, the deliveries reached as far as Williamsport and Mill Hall.

“Originally we wanted to keep it just in Jersey Shore — as small as we can since it’s just us doing it — but then we had a ton of people reach out and ask to donate something or help. So we actually had enough to do more, so we were able to branch out a little bit farther,” she said. “So many people reached out — offering to buy stuff themselves or to just help out in any way, shape or form.”

She said even more people were simply supportive.

“This is not just us,” she said.

Seeing how the meals touched the lives of their recipients, Berfield said they hope to make the deliveries an annual tradition.

“I think the important thing is how easy it is to help people out,” said Bella Grube, of Montoursville. “A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, I could never bake meals for 100 people, so why would I?’ But part of the reason we’re doing this is so people see, ‘Oh my God, wait, I could do that. I could help out.’ And really, what we’re seeing is people contributing as much as they can.”