On a chilly morning in Lower Manhattan this month, the line outside Trinity Commons, a modern extension of New York’s historic Trinity church, stretched on past the end of the block.
Hundreds of people were standing in the 44F cold, many with young children, waiting to get their turn for the Compassion Market food bank.
“It’s all the way down the block today,” said Vidia Cordero, the church’s deputy chief community impact officer. The bank had been open less than an hour and they had “already had 250 or so inside”.
In total, the famous church on Broadway saw more than 1,000 people the previous week on Tuesday and Thursday alone, the days on which the food bank is open. The immense number of people in need has now become the new normal.
Cordero described a staggering growth in the number of visitors since the federal government began withholding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits as part of the recent, record-long government shutdown. But the increase in hunger began well before that, with food prices going up steadily since the start of the year as the burden of Donald Trump’s tariffs and stubborn inflation have been felt across the US.
An October study from S&P Global revealed that companies were expected to pay at least $1.2tn more in 2025 expenses than was previously anticipated. But the burden, according to the researchers, is now shifting to US consumers. They calculated that two-thirds of the “expense shock”, more than $900bn, will be absorbed by Americans. Last month, the Yale Budget Lab estimated tariffs would cost households almost $2,400 more a year.
As further evidence of the affordability crisis, the average cost of groceries for a family of four in the US has climbed to a record $1,030 per month, according to the Kobeissi Letter. This marks an increase of $280 since 2017, when the average family spent $750 a month.
Due to the surge in demand, the church had to come up with a new way to line the visitors up outside. By the end of this particular day, Cordero estimated they would have have served at least 550 people.
The church’s location could not be more of a contrast if it tried. Not only does its gothic revival style architecture stand out among the Manhattan skyscrapers, but the building is quite literally opposite Wall Street.
The New York Stock Exchange, in the heart of the financial district of the biggest US city, packed with billionaires, in the wealthiest country on Earth, is just around the block. Commuters and tourists bustle just steps from where people are lined up for the Compassion Market.
Trinity has responded to the increase in recipients by creating multiple ways to get food to those in need. “We have non-cook bags,” Cordero said, packages with ready-to-eat products made for those “who are not able to cook”, such as unhoused individuals or those living in shelters without kitchens. “We’ve been getting a lot more people wanting non-cook bags,” she said.
For others, the “client choice market” allows visitors to shop for groceries “essentially like a shopping experience”, choosing items from each category within set limits. In front of the church itself, next to the historic cemetery that includes the burial sites of Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza, daily hot meals are served at breakfast, lunch and dinner time.
In addition to sending out Thanksgiving holiday distribution to 43 different sites, the church also hosted their own Thanksgiving meal celebration for those in need at St Paul’s chapel, featuring all the fixings for the holiday.
Cordero noted that families and individuals alike have been regularly coming from all across the five boroughs of New York City. “They commute for an hour to get here to get groceries,” she said.
In addition to food, Trinity church’s outreach now extends to other basic necessities. “We’re serving clothing as well as food,” Cordero said. “We have appointments for clothing, toiletries, blankets, winter coats, winter boots.” All of the items, including garments, are brand new, with the food coming from local markets and the clothes having been ordered by the church from Amazon.
But demand often exceeds supply: “There are times for people that need clothing when we have to cut the line sometimes, turn them away because we ran out,” she said, shaking her head.
On this day, an overwhelming number of visitors can be seen carrying babies and, as a result, one of the biggest surges has come in supplies for infants. Tuesdays are now dedicated largely to this cause. “We’ve seen a huge uptick in [demand for] the diapers and formula, over 200 people in a day for these things alone,” Cordero said. “The moms are so happy, as are the dads, because we started providing formula.”
Cordero described the process of assembling “baby bundles” for expectant parents, complete with an infant stroller and “all the things that they would need for the baby”.
Trinity’s efforts are part of a larger mobilization within the church’s philanthropic network. Bea De la Torre, chief philanthropy officer, said: “We recently, given the government shutdown, have directed close to $400,000 to organizations that work with either Snap recipients that were not getting their benefits or are working in distributing foods to a wider array of individuals.”
The church, De la Torre said, “was able to move extremely quickly”, identifying which grantees were expected to increase demand and getting funding to them within days. “I received the most beautiful thank you notes you can imagine that just bring you to tears and just make you so proud of being able to do this work,” she said.
De la Torre emphasized that Trinity’s strength lies in being both a direct service provider and a funder of other charities, a versatility that allows the organization to address a wide range of needs.
Trinity spent $1.6m to provide 2.5m meals in 2024, and $3.3m has been spent to provide 5m meals in 2025 so far.
Inside the church’s Compassion Market, things move quickly. Volunteers push carts, restock shelves and greet families in multiple languages.
As the wind chill dropped temperatures further and the line outside still stretched on, people were continuously filed in a practiced efficiency. With the December holiday season quickly approaching, the work isn’t going to slow down.
“That’s what we’re here for,” Cordero said. “To give folks what they need that they aren’t getting elsewhere.”
