More than 125,000 Triangle residents are on the brink of losing access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as the federal government shutdown continues to drag out.
The looming benefits freeze is heightening the economic burden on an already vulnerable population. Local food banks and other community organizations are also scrambling as they brace for an increasing number of customers who have lost their food assistance.
SNAP, often referred to as food stamps, is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and helps qualifying individuals and families by providing supplemental income specifically for purchasing food. Every month, 1.4 million (or 13 percent of) people in North Carolina receive SNAP benefits, to the tune of $230-$250 million. Additional support is provided through the WIC program which offers nutritional education, breastfeeding support, healthy food and other resources for women, infants and children.
Due to the ongoing government shutdown, the USDA has directed state and local agencies to pause the distribution of SNAP benefits starting on Saturday, November 1, unless funding is allotted or a judge steps in. The USDA has indicated that they will not tap into contingency money set aside by Congress for SNAP to keep the program funded during the shutdown, nor will they reimburse states that try to cover the cost on their own, which it appears North Carolina’s legislature will not do.
Maggie Clapp, director of the Durham County Department of Social Services (DSS), says the agency has been inundated with concerns from residents about how they are going to survive without being able to buy food. DSS is allotted roughly $6 million per month to distribute to the 32,529 people in Durham who receive SNAP benefits. Without the federal funding, DSS does not have the reserves to cover the monthly payouts.
“It’s not looking good for our citizens,” Clapp says. “We’ve seen an incredible increase in people coming into lobbies and calling. My staff were very emotional last week because, of course, they’re hearing people’s fear and concern about how they’re going to feed their children, or are they gonna have to choose between critical diabetic medication for their mom versus feeding their family?”
Most SNAP beneficiaries in North Carolina are working individuals who are still often choosing between buying food and medicine, Clapp says, because of the state’s substandard $7.25 minimum wage.
“I have staff that are on SNAP benefits. So you know, this idea that SNAP beneficiaries don’t work is actually quite false. The majority of them work. The ones who don’t are people who cannot, who have medical, mental health or physical disabilities. So right now, my staff is very concerned. They got into this work to help people, and now, these are families that they’ve worked with for several years, and so it’s a difficult time.”
With no end to the shutdown in sight, food banks and other local organizations are rallying to support, but their resolve is being tested. Dorcas Ministries, which operates a good pantry in Cary, reported a three-fold increase in applications for food assistance last weekend. Donations to food banks have slowed in the last few years, says L. Ron Pringle, CEO of Raleigh-based Inter-faith Food Shuttle, which serves roughly 35,000 individuals a month across the Triangle and surrounding counties.
“We’re already beginning to see people that we’ve never seen before as they begin to try to prepare for this,” Pringle says. “Individuals that have already not received their paychecks are trying to get as much food as they can because they don’t know when this is going to end.”
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, SNAP beneficiaries receive about $173 per month on average. That number increases for households with children, working households, and households with non-elderly disabled individuals. Even though folks will still have access to unused benefits issued before November 1, Pringle says most folks on SNAP exhaust those funds two-to-three weeks into the monthly cycle.
Current SNAP recipients aren’t the only ones facing hardship as a result of the shutdown. Federal employees who are furloughed or working without pay still have monthly expenses like rent, transportation, and childcare. And now, they can’t turn to assistance programs like SNAP because they, too, aren’t being funded.
“These are individuals that have never had to choose between feeding their children and paying rent,” Pringle says. “That’s a choice they’ve never had to make before, and now they’re trying to make these types of choices and compromises. And so the mental toll that it’s really taken on them is a part of what we have to deal with in trying to help them through their situation.”
Seemingly everyone in the network is being strained by budget cuts, freezes, and instability. Food banks like Inter-Faith Food Shuttle have seen a decrease in corporate and individual giving due to uncertainties in the market from COVID-19 a few years ago, to the on-again, off-again tariffs. Earlier this year, the USDA cut nearly a billion dollars in funding when it eliminated two programs, the Local Food for Schools Cooperative Agreement and the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement, which supported schools and food banks in purchasing food from local farmers and producers. This all ripples out to farmers, markets, grocery stores, and small businesses.
All together, the folks who need support and the support systems themselves are being squeezed to their limit. Pringle says “there is no possible way” for food banks to fill the gap created by the loss of SNAP; for every meal that food banks provide, SNAP benefits provide nine.
“Our programs were built to complement the safety net,” Pringle says. “Our programs were built to capture those who fall between the cracks and to help them get back on a pathway to self-sufficiency, not to be a support system.”
On Tuesday, Pringle joined North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Jonathan Kappler, chief of staff for North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, during a press conference where Pringle and Kappler shed light on the issue, and Jackson announced he was joining AGs from nearly two dozen states in suing the USDA and asking the courts to step in and mandate the use of contingency funding for November SNAP benefits. A federal judge indicated she may rule in favor of the AGs soon.
Kappler, Clapp and others have pointed out that food assistance is not a partisan issue. In North Carolina, 11 counties, many of them rural areas that voted overwhelmingly Republican in the last presidential election, have populations where 1 in 4 people receive SNAP benefits.
“People forget, who’s on SNAP is not a Democratic or Republican issue,” Clapp says. “It is not a certain age group, or race, or faith–it’s everybody in this country. We don’t pay living wages in a lot of areas, and so people need support, and that’s what this is.”
Pringle, who has worked with food banks for over two decades, agrees with Clapp.
“I don’t know one race or culture that doesn’t eat,” Pringle says. “I know I’ve got a lot to learn, but I have not come across that yet.”
Despite the bleak outlook, local agencies and community organizations are stepping up to meet the moment, and appealing to residents who are able to donate food or money to food banks, pantries and community fridges. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has created a food access map for folks seeking assistance, which is also a helpful repository of food banks that would benefit from donations.
Durham County Social Services is hosting a food drive at a number of locations throughout the county where residents can bring nonperishable food items, dry goods, canned fruit or canned meat, and other pre-packaged snacks until November 7. Restaurants and other organizations are also hosting programs to support foods in need of assistance.
The Durham Farmers’ Market says it will continue to operate its Double Bucks program, which allows SNAP recipients to double their money, whether from an EBT card or not. Folks can also donate to the match program to further increase purchasing power.
In Wake County, where 83,000 people receive SNAP, county officials have created resource pages for those seeking help and community members looking to donate.
“We are asking our community to step up and support neighbors who will turn to local pantries in the coming days,” said Chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners Susan Evans in a public statement on Wednesday. “Every donation, whether food or money, helps pantries remain stocked and accessible to those who need them during this lapse and beyond.”
And in Orange County, where 9,000 residents receive SNAP benefits, organizations like PORCH Chapel Hill-Carrboro are aiming to raise their level of support for local residents facing food insecurity. Through their Food for Pantries program, PORCH supports 16 community-rooted pantries in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, providing 1,500 lbs of food each month to trusted organizations, a number they hope to exceed in November.
Information coming from the federal government has been “very slow,” according to Clapp. Local agencies and dozens of community organizations are working to prop up the system as they hold out for clarity on when SNAP benefits will be restored, but there are no guarantees as to when that will happen. Congress has been at a standstill for weeks, and the Trump Administration has already made long-term cuts to the SNAP program.
“It’s an absolutely absurd position to be in, in my opinion, in this country, with the amount of food that we waste and the ability to provide health care for all,” Clapp says. “Those are basic human rights. So we should not have to be choosing which one.”
Despite her frustration, Clapp clings to a sliver of optimism.
“I’m holding out a very fundamental hope, but each day that goes by, it’s making me less hopeful,” Clapp says.
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