US budget cuts leave food pantries short on options

AARON DUCETT | UNSPLASH

Federal budget cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, coupled with economic uncertainty has increased the burden of food pantries to keep pace with increased demand.

Federal budget rollbacks are straining local food pantries.

The Trump administration moved to end Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits entirely; however, partial payments are still being issued after a federal judge intervened. However, it will leave millions of Americans struggling to put food on the table. Heading into the holiday season — typically a busy time for food pantries — it will pose more challenges.

Kenya Joseph, founder of Hearts and Hands Food Pantry, said they are already working hard going into the holidays, but this has added more than double the work. 

“We’re at this place where we're adding on additional days, additional hours,” she said. “As we open our calendar, as quickly as we open up a new slot, we have staff coverage, volunteer coverage for that slot is being taken immediately. This is an apocalyptic situation in a way, honestly, and it’s crazy to me because it’s completely man made. This is not a situation where a pandemic is happening, or a major hurricane or storm has wiped out parts of our state or things like that. These are our government leaders who people automatically kind of take for granted that they're going to do what needs to be done.”

Nearly 12% of Mecklenburg County’s households – more than 45,000 people – are considered food insecure, according to Feeding America. The food insecurity rate for Mecklenburg children is 18%. According to county data, there are about 138,500 SNAP participants in Mecklenburg and federal funding amounts to about $24 million per month, or about $175 per recipient per month. 

Food insecurity can result in reduced quality and variety of diet, eating less and disrupted eating patterns because of a lack of money and resources. There are also health implications to limited access to healthy food. It can lead to poor diet, which can result to obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

The situation won’t be easily mitigated until benefits are reinstated, but with the government amid its longest shutdown in history, it’s unlikely. 

Without funding, more people will have to rely on pantries and other means of assistance to get through the holidays unless the government acts, which adds to the stress level of pantry workers.

“I haven’t rested at all for the last two weeks,” Joseph said. “Not a day off, nothing. So, I am coming down with [illness]. It is hugely stressful. Obviously, it’s great that we are a food pantry and we are on the front lines. That is our job to provide for the community but the work behind the scenes needed to be done is going to be tough to make sure that we have enough to give the families consistently without gaps.”

As long as SNAP is limited, pantries will try to stand in the gap, but eventually food will run out unless aid returns.

“With SNAP being stopped, that is a huge situation that we’ve never seen before, or at least I’ve never seen before in my lifetime,” Joseph said. “However, for the organizations, this has been our paradigm since the beginning of February because the USDA cut all these programs that were helping supply food pantries and food banks. They’ve been making cuts all year, so we’ve been struggling all year to help meet the demand we are seeing. But our community is responding and helping out by donating.”

Joseph doesn’t know how long supplies will last, but understands depletion is inevitable without help. She implores people to keep donating  and volunteering until the government reopens and reinstate full benefits. 

“There is absolutely going to be a tipping point, and the question is, where is that tipping point,” she said. “That's a very individual question to the capacity of each organization. I can't even necessarily answer that for ours right now. We don’t know when we’re going to reach that point or where it is. It just depends.”

On the Net:

heartsandhandsfoodpantry.com

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