Nearly 200 people lined up outside St. Peter in the Bronx Lutheran Church on East 140th Street on a recent Wednesday afternoon for a bag of red peppers each.

The food pantry at St. Peter is one of many in the neighborhood struggling to serve the community’s hungry in the wake of state and federal budget cuts.

“They don’t give meat, they don’t give cheese,” said Mott Haven resident Sarah Oliver, who was making her first visit to the pantry. “They usually only give canned vegetables.”

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