MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Juan Soto hit his first home run since the opening weekend of the season and the New York Mets beat the slumping Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Monday night.
Pete Alonso and Luisangel Acuña had two hits apiece for the Mets, who have won nine of 11. Alonso delivered an early RBI single, and Acuña stole a base and scored twice while reaching safely three times from the No. 9 spot in the batting order.
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New York Mets' Mark Vientos (27) gestures after hitting an RBI double during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan (41) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes (35) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Justin Topa (48) adjusts his cap after committing a throwing error which resulted in a run scored during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) runs to second base after hitting a double during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña (2) scores off an RBI-single by New York Mets' Pete Alonso (20) during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Juan Soto (22) celebrates with Pete Alonso (20) after hitting a two-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota (5-12) finished with three hits on a damp and chilly evening and tied a season high with 13 strikeouts.
With the Mets up 3-1 in the seventh inning and a runner on, Soto drilled a changeup from Jorge Alcala into the front row of seats in right-center for his first home run since March 28 in Houston.
One inning earlier, Mark Vientos doubled home Alonso with the tiebreaking run. Vientos scored two batters later on a throwing error by reliever Justin Topa (0-1) to make it 3-1.
Clay Holmes (2-1) allowed just two hits while striking out eight in five innings for the Mets. He breezed through his first four frames, but two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases for Minnesota with no outs in the fifth. The Twins managed just one run on a sacrifice fly by Christian Vázquez.
Minnesota is hitting .203, the second-lowest mark in the American League.
Twins starter Joe Ryan needed 101 pitches to labor through five innings, allowing one run and striking out eight.
In the past seven games, Minnesota starters are 2-1 with a 0.96 ERA. They’ve struck out 36 batters, walked seven and allowed just one home run. Yet the team is 2-5.
After the Mets took a 3-1 lead in the sixth, reliever Huascar Brazobán need just nine pitches to retire three Twins in the bottom of the inning.
Excluding seasons impacted by COVID-19, the attendance of 10,240 was the lowest since Target Field opened in 2010.
Mets RHP Tylor Megill (2-1, 0.63 ERA) starts the middle game of the series Tuesday night against RHP Bailey Ober (0-1, 7.11).
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
New York Mets' Mark Vientos (27) gestures after hitting an RBI double during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Joe Ryan (41) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets starting pitcher Clay Holmes (35) delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Justin Topa (48) adjusts his cap after committing a throwing error which resulted in a run scored during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the New York Mets, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Francisco Lindor (12) runs to second base after hitting a double during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Luisangel Acuña (2) scores off an RBI-single by New York Mets' Pete Alonso (20) during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
New York Mets' Juan Soto (22) celebrates with Pete Alonso (20) after hitting a two-run home run during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
NEW YORK (AP) — The Campaign Against Hunger was already struggling to feed thousands of families a week when the Trump administration pulled more than $1.3 million in grants.
Demand has only increased at the New York nonprofit since the city emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and the related economic insecurity. In a first for the pantry, however, it isn't just the jobless lining up for its fresh produce and meats. It's working people, too.
Food banks typically see the most need during periods of high unemployment and yet the U.S. is facing down a hunger crisis during a relatively resilient labor market. The latest U.S. Department of Agriculture research showed there were one million more food insecure households in 2023 than 2022.
Now, income stagnation and rising living costs are sending wage earners to food banks across the country — all as the federal government shuts off funding streams that provide millions with healthier, harder-to-get groceries. The squeeze comes as Republicans discuss budget plans that hunger relief groups fear will deepen the crisis by slashing food stamp spending.
“We were already in a bad state. But now we have been plunged head down into a crisis that should never have been,” said Melony Samuels, executive director of The Campaign Against Hunger. “If major cuts like these continue, I would imagine that our doors will close.”
Funding cuts began threatening food availability in March.
The USDA halted $500 million of expected food deliveries and cut another $1 billion for hunger relief programs supporting local producers. The Department of Homeland Security also rescinded Federal Emergency Management Agency grants for local governments and nonprofits — including The Campaign Against Hunger — to shelter and feed newly arrived noncitizen migrants after their release.
“Secretary Noem has directed FEMA to implement additional controls to ensure that all grant money going out is consistent with law and does not go to fraud, waste or abuse, as in the past,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Samuels said her nonprofit is limiting normally bimonthly food distributions to once a month due to the lost funds, which are being withheld amid what she called “baseless allegations" from DHS that the nonprofit might have broken laws against transporting migrants in the country illegally.
That means fewer nutritious options for the dozens of people — some holding babies, many pushing carts — who recently waited to shop inside The Campaign Against Hunger's Brooklyn mock-store on an overcast weekday in April.
Longtime Brooklyn resident Kim Dennis has noticed the uptick in need. On top of her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, the 65-year-old retiree visits The Campaign Against Hunger twice each month for groceries like potatoes and pork chops that are more difficult to find at other food banks often filled with canned goods.
“The lines are getting a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot," Dennis said, partially due to recent immigration waves. “Everything is going up and a lot of us cannot afford."
Over half of responding food banks told Feeding America they served more neighbors this February than the same month last year.
Christiana Santamaria said she visits a local food bank in Alameda, California each week to feed herself, her husband and their daughter. They struggle to cover food costs, internet bills and car payments with a monthly household income of nearly $3,000.
“I mean, my husband, he works full-time. He has a quote-unquote ‘good job.’ But I mean, it’s the military. And if even the military can’t afford things, that’s sad," she said.
The country's largest hunger-relief network is also feeling the strain.
Feeding America consists of more than 200 member food banks. Their assistance is often easier to obtain than government benefits such as SNAP that some advocates say require burdensome applications. Many families put dinner on the table through a combination of the two — a strategy food bank leaders say could be upended if Republican lawmakers cut SNAP allotments or expand work requirements.
Houston Food Bank CEO Brian Greene expects his organization, which operates the largest distribution among Feeding America partners, to lose somewhere around $4 million this year.
The government pullbacks amp up that pressure. If the cuts stay, Greene said, the projected losses include $3 million for food storage and distribution, $7 million supporting local farmers and producers, and 40 tractor trailer loads a month carrying key produce and protein.
Greene is trying to make up the difference through donations. But he's realistic. Surveys consistently place American philanthropy around 2% of GDP and social services receive just a sliver of that. Even if charitable contributions spiked, he said, they couldn't replace federal support.
That makes SNAP availability even more critical to alleviating hunger. Cutting the program by 11%, he said, would be the equivalent of wiping out every food bank in the United States.
Food purchases are funded through the Farm Bill. Trump's trade war has also generated more money for USDA to buy food commodities under a 1935 program that dedicates tariff collections toward “bonus” food purchases.
What concerns hunger relief groups, however, is that the suspended purchases are covered by a different funding pot that allows the USDA great discretion when responding to economic disruptions. The first Trump administration put more than $2 billion of those funds toward The Emergency Food Assistance Program, or TEFAP. However, USDA is now reviewing $500 million allocated last fall for the program.
Federal commodities programs provide some of the most reliable supplies of proteins. Vince Hall, who leads government relations for Feeding America, said TEFAP-purchased foods account for more than 20% of everything distributed by the entire network. That number rises in rural communities — where the cost of reaching distant populations is higher and donated products are less available.
The impact trickles down to smaller pantries that rely on larger food banks. Mother Hubbard's Cupboard is bracing for about 25% food reductions from a Feeding America partner in Bloomington, Indiana.
“What we're likely to see then would be a dip in what are really the nutritional staples that we expect in the pantry,” said Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard President Megan Betz.
A 2022 study measuring food pantries' value suggests participating families obtain between $600 and $1000 annually from them. That's equivalent to a couple months of food for some low-income households, according to co-author David Just, an applied economics professor at Cornell University.
The centers helped cushion families from the pandemic's economic shocks. But food insecurity started rising as the government rolled back its pandemic-era assistance.
Need has surpassed the height of COVID-19, according to Alameda County Community Food Bank Executive Director Reggie Young. The weight of the Oakland nonprofit's annual food distributions has doubled its pre-pandemic totals.
Food insecurity nationwide is the highest it's been in about a decade, according to Just, making it “potentially a really difficult time to start cutting food assistance through the pantries.”
“This could cause some pretty significant pain,” he said. "And I don’t know that we’re delivering something more efficient in the end.”
Associated Press journalist Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report.
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Church members pack groceries in van at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
A volunteer pulls box of produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Alameda resident Beatriz Cortez picks up groceries at the Alameda Food Bank on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Volunteers pack produce at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Alameda, Calif., on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Alameda resident Beatriz Cortez picks up groceries at the Alameda Food Bank on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
Alameda resident Christina Santamaria stands outside the Alameda Food Bank with groceries and her daughter in Alameda, Calif. on Friday, April 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)
People line up for groceries outside The Campaign Against Hunger's distribution center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
Kim Dennis, 65, visits The Campaign Against Hunger's distribution center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
The Campaign Against Hunger Executive Director Melony Samuels sits in her office in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/James Pollard)
