Those who depend on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP, didn’t receive benefits last weekend amid the government shutdown.
It has created growing pressure on community food banks.
Volunteers at Flagstaff Family Food Center’s kitchen chopped fruit and bagged sandwiches on Monday.
Army veteran and SNAP recipient Troy Sandstedt was among them.
“I know exactly how many days of food I got, and how far I'm going to have to stretch it,” Sandstedt says. “It has left me basically with no food in my house, stressing a lot. Then I found the food bank and, well, at least I can get food here.”
He has relied on SNAP since a car accident prevented him from delivering for DoorDash five months ago.
“It's rough. And my neighbors, who would never use the food bank normally, you know, they're coming up here every day,” Sandstedt says. “I'm seeing people that I've worked with before, you know, that worked in restaurants, and they're coming here.”
Many SNAP recipients are trying to stretch last month’s benefits into November as they depend on pantries like the Flagstaff Family Food Center.
Senior Manager of culinary programs CJ Ivie says they gave out more than 51,000 meals in October.
“That's usually a slower month for us, and that's kind of when we see a fall off. So yeah, breaking records in months that should be slowing down,” he says .
According to Ivie, those who come to the kitchen are often unhoused and generally travel south as the weather gets colder. But now the number of local families coming to them is growing.
“I do think that we're going to see an increase in people. At least I'm going to be prepared for that,” Ivie says “And hopefully people, in this time of uncertainty, not knowing what they're going to get, use us as that resource.”
The Trump administration says it plans to restart SNAP but participants will receive half their normal amount.
It could also take weeks for states to recalculate and distribute benefits.
