Hammond resident Leah Allen has been receiving $115 a month in SNAP benefits for a little over a year.
“It’s not much, but it does help out,” Allen said, adding that she uses SNAP benefits for her groceries, particularly for fresh vegetables.
Allen, 69, said she receives Social Security payments, but that covers her bills and housing costs. Without SNAP benefits, Allen said she will have to rely on her family to help her buy groceries.
Beyond her and her family, Allen said she’s concerned about working families who won’t be able to feed their children when SNAP funding ends Nov. 1 amid the government shutdown.
“It needs to be reinstated,” Allen said. “People are going to be out here starving.”
The fate of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries, is becoming a deep concern as it gets closer to Nov. 1, when the benefits could dry up without either a resolution of the federal government shutdown or other action.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP, told states earlier this month not to contact vendors because of uncertainty about whether the program would be funded in November.
The average monthly benefit is $187 per person. Most beneficiaries have incomes at or below the poverty level.
Congress and President Donald Trump could strike a deal to end the federal shutdown that started Oct. 1. It’s also possible that the Trump administration would allocate money for the program even if the shutdown continues.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that about $5 billion is available in a contingency fund and is calling on the administration to use that for partial benefits in November.
In Indiana, about 600,000 residents are enrolled in SNAP, a spokesperson for the state’s Family and Social Services Administration said Friday morning. If the government shutdown is not resolved by Nov. 5, then SNAP recipients will not receive their November benefits.
“The surest way to protect Hoosiers from a disruption in their SNAP benefits is for Senate Democrats to quickly pass the Clean Continuing Resolution,” FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said in a statement. “Until then, families across Indiana are left in limbo — their ability to put food on the table tied up in political gridlock.
U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan, D-Highland, said in a statement to the Post-Tribune that the “real pain” that will be felt in communities when SNAP benefits end “is the direct result of the Republican majority’s refusal to act.”
“It is unconscionable that working families, children, and seniors are facing rising costs, the loss of health care and the loss of the very food assistance they rely on to survive,” Mrvan said. “It is reprehensible that Speaker (Mike) Johnson has chosen to send Members of Congress home instead of staying in Washington to fight for health care, food assistance, and lower costs for the American people. I am ready to return to Washington and fight to end this needless harm being inflicted on families across the nation.”
Leah Selk, a spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, said in a statement to the Post-Tribune that the senator “has voted 12 times for a bipartisan bill” that would reopen the government.
“It’s sad and unfortunate that Democrats continue to use American families as ‘leverage’ to advance their partisan agenda,” the statement said. “(Sen. Young) will continue to encourage his Democrat colleagues to change course and vote to reopen the government for Americans.”
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, said in a similar statement that he has also voted to reopen the government “a dozen times,” adding that “Senate Democrats keep blocking it.” Banks did not reference SNAP benefits in his statement.
“They even voted against paying our troops and essential federal workers like air traffic controllers who are working without paychecks,” Banks said in his statement. “Democrats are holding American families hostage to push healthcare for illegals and it’s disgraceful.”
Food Bank of Northwest Indiana President and CEO Victor Garcia said the cuts to SNAP benefit funding “will be catastrophic to food banks” and, closer to home, the 60,000 Northwest Indiana residents who come to the food bank or use its services monthly.
“From the food bank perspective, the unfortunate news of the continued government shutdown and its impact to SNAP benefits for our friends and neighbors in Northwest Indiana in need just highlights even more the critical importance of what we sometimes call the food bank network as the safety net of the safety net,” Garcia said.
For every nine meals that SNAP provides, a food bank provides one meal, Garcia said. The vast majority of people utilizing SNAP benefits are working families with children, seniors and individuals with special needs, Garcia said, so a disruption or cut to SNAP will impact already vulnerable communities.
“So even with the amazing work that we’re doing here, SNAP is the best way to meet the need for food-insecure friends and neighbors in Lake and Porter counties. It is also the most efficient way to do it. With these challenges, there is no way around it impacting our organization and our communities,” Garcia said.
Garcia said the food bank has already been experiencing higher demand from the various shifts in policy at the federal and state levels.
In 2019, the need for food insecurity support in Lake and Porter counties was about 17 million pounds of food, Garcia said. Last year, the food bank put out about 9 million pounds of food and this year, the food bank is on track to put out about 11 million pounds of food.
That means, Garcia said, that in the last two years the food bank hasn’t had the food supply to meet the needs of food insecurity support at 2019 levels. Further, people have been economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and, since then, inflation has increased the cost of food, utilities and fuel, Garcia.
Meanwhile, as costs have increased, most people’s salaries haven’t increased, Garcia said.
“When that happens, we see increased demand for support from the food bank. We just want to make sure that our community knows that the food bank is here to help them,” Garcia said. “We are not shying away from any of the challenges presented before our community or our food bank.”
The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana has “a healthy amount of food at the moment,” Garcia said. But “there’s potential for some barriers in the supply chain” through the USDA because new orders for food can’t be placed amid the government shutdown, he said.
The USDA food is the food bank’s second largest food supplier, followed by donated foods, Garcia said. While the food bank’s administrative team has been working to secure more donated food, Garcia said the staff has to secure donated food within its space and resource capability.
“We don’t have enough food to meet the need that existed prior to these challenges with the government shutdown. So the enhanced barrier of disruptions to SNAP benefits are only going to make things worse and we don’t have more food to help serve that,” Garcia said.
Bobbi DeKemper, director of the Portage Township Food Pantry, said about 300 people receive food from the organization twice a month. If SNAP benefits are cut in November, she expects that number will increase.
“We’re already seeing federal workers come in,” DeKemper said, “so I would expect to see more, but how much more is anybody’s guess.”
With rising food prices, DeKemper is worried the pantry will have difficulties serving more residents. She also believes that the food pantry will have to be open longer than usual. As of Friday, DeKemper said the food pantry is open from 10 a.m. to noon.
“On Thursday, we were open 45 minutes longer because the line was so long,” DeKemper said. “You keep seeing (an increase in) the number of people coming in … It keeps rising, and that’s before SNAP benefits go, so who knows what’s going to happen if the SNAP benefits are no longer there.”
DeKemper hopes the government shutdown is resolved before SNAP benefits must be cut, she said Friday.
Freida Graves, director of Food is Medicine for Faith CDC, said her organization is also SNAP-certified. The number of SNAP recipients who receive food from Faith CDC “keeps growing,” Graves said.
If SNAP benefits are cut in November, Graves expects to see a larger number of people who visit the farm for food.
“For Food is Medicine, we have a distribution every two weeks,” Graves said. “But we think that’s going to increase and there’s going to be more people coming in and asking for food because they’re not going to have food in their houses. … It’s going to be a really sad time if that happens.”
Graves is angry for the people in Northwest Indiana who are going to be affected if SNAP benefits are cut, she said, especially for those in Gary who already live in a food-insecure area.
“It makes me angry,” Graves said. “It makes you wonder what you can do except raising your voice and calling your senators to make changes and make it so they hear enough voices that they can come together. … People need food. They’re still going to be hungry.”
akukulka@post-trib.com
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com