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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (Iowa Media Wire) — Iowans may not receive their SNAP benefits on their cards this November if the federal shutdown continues, and Siouxland food pantries are expecting more residents to line up if it happens.
This comes from Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services, with Wednesday marking the 22nd day of the shutdown.
Iowa SNAP serves roughly 131,000 households per month, and now, those in need might look to use food pantries to keep their food budgets low.
The Sunnybrook Hope Center, a local food pantry, said that if SNAP benefits are paused, they’ll have to double their efforts to help those in need.
“It does stretch us a bit, because we have to think about how to source differently; how to scale up our sourcing to be able to respond to the increasing need here that we’ve seen throughout the entire year. I know more families will be hurting, so we want to be ready to be welcoming and opening our doors,” said Tina Stroud, the executive director of Sunnybrook Hope Center.
The Food Bank of Siouxland supplies food to over 100 food pantries throughout the Siouxland area, and officials are currently working to ensure they’re prepared for the potential influx of people.
“The best thing we can do as a food bank is communicate. We communicate to our wonderful donors that we maybe seeing an increase need coming up, we communicate to the individuals using our services in the community to say here are the pantries that you can visit to make sure that you are able to get food and make it through this month without your SNAP benefits if needed,” said Valerie Petersen, the Associate Executive Director of the Food Bank of Siouxland.
For anyone wanting to help their local food pantry, Petersen recommends reaching out to your local pantry officials and asking what they need and how you can help.