The federal government stopped providing SNAP benefits to 42 million Americans, including around 270,000 Iowans, on Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown.
A group of 25 states, not including Iowa, sued the Trump administration for refusing to use emergency funds to support SNAP recipients. Last week, a pair of federal judges ruled that the Trump administration must use emergency funds to support the program.
The administration has said it will use the funds to provide people enrolled in SNAP with about half of their usual payment, but NPR reports it’s not clear how long it will take for benefits to kick in.
Chakia, who declined to share her full name, was at the North Liberty Community Food Pantry just outside of Iowa City Monday to pick up food. Typically, she would receive money at the beginning of each month through SNAP to help buy food for her four children, two of whom have special needs. Chakia usually relies on both SNAP funds and visits the food pantry to get through the month.
“Last month, trying to make it work for this month, was a bit hard,” she said. “I had to get less things with the hopes that things would be better, because I usually get my benefits on the 10th of the month. But, of course, that didn’t work out.”
“We tried to prepare as best as we could so that we weren’t reacting. But I don’t think there’s any way to not react when these things happen.”Krystal Kabela, assistant manager at CommUnity Food Bank
Chakia said getting all her family’s food from the pantry would be difficult because her two children are particular about what they eat. She said the money she received through SNAP allowed her to better meet her children's needs.
“It goes a long way for my family,” Chakia said. “We still usually supplement with the pantry [food] throughout the month, but not having it at all, it’s going to be very hard this month.”
Food pantry leaders describe an uptick in visits
Ryan Bobst, executive director of the North Liberty Community Food Pantry, said there was an uptick in families utilizing the food pantry in the weeks ahead of SNAP running out.
“We will see what this week brings, but we are anticipating a surge in demand," Bobst said. “I know that 10,000 residents in Johnson County are now going without $1.7 million a month in SNAP assistance, so [that surge will continue] at least until the government shutdown is resolved and SNAP is reallocated so that families can access food assistance.”
Ahead of the weekend, the CommUnity Food Bank in Iowa City placed an extra order with one of its major suppliers, nearly doubling the amount of food it planned to provide.
“We usually serve between 900 and 1,000 households in-house,” said Assistant Manager Krystal Kabela. "And then we have mobile pantry and delivery, and they serve between 125 and 175 each week. Our delivery has increased, our requests for deliveries have increased, so we’re seeing numbers there increasing."
Kabela said the food pantry expects to see an increase in the number of visits as well.
“We tried to prepare as best as we could so that we weren’t reacting,” she said. “But I don’t think there’s any way to not react when these things happen.”
Gaps left by SNAP cuts will be hard to fill
Last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds pledged up to $1 million in matching funds from the state to go to Iowa’s six regional food banks that distribute food to local food pantries. Food access leaders in Johnson County have said that money is not nearly enough to address the need.
Table to Table is an Iowa-City based organization that performs “food rescues” by redistributing surplus food to local food pantries, including CommUnity. Executive Director Nicki Ross said their pantries saw an uptick in financial donations over the weekend.
“Our Food Access Network fund for purchasing food saw some donations as well," Ross said. "And then starting early last week, we had a lot of local groups putting together food drives and things like that.”
Ross said although she has seen the community pulling together to help, those donations don’t come close to filling the $1.7 million monthly gap in Johnson County left behind by the delay in SNAP payments.
“We could be picking up 10 times as much food, in terms of food donations from food drives as we normally do, and it still wouldn’t be enough to meet the full need,” Ross said. “But every single can of food that we get matters.”
