CLEVELAND — For every meal a food bank can provide, the federal food assistance program known as SNAP can provide as many as twelve meals. With SNAP funding running dry at the end of next month, the potential impact on local food banks cannot be understated, officials said.
Earlier this week, the USDA disbursed its remaining $4.8 billion in SNAP benefits — still known to many as food stamps — to recipients for the month of February, which is more than two weeks early. The early disbursement of these benefits has Greater Cleveland Food Bank staff scrambling to remind recipients to budget their benefits wisely. It could be as many as 40 days until benefits are distributed again if the partial government shutdown ends.
Roughly 1.4 million Ohioans participate in SNAP and received their February benefits on Wednesday. The state typically doles out the SNAP benefits on even-numbered days between the second and 20th day of each month. The early benefits are due to the USDA finding an overlooked budgetary provision that required benefits to be distributed by January 20, which falls on the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial holiday weekend.
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank has been handing out flyers to SNAP recipients this week, reminding them they will not receive additional benefits for the month of February.
One of those flyers was prominently displayed at University Settlement, a social services provider in Cleveland’s Broadway-Slavic Village neighborhood. University Settlement provides a food pantry, SNAP application assistance and elderly assistance, among other charitable efforts.
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank provides food for University Settlement’s pantry.
“I’m very very grateful that there is a place like this to come to,” said Lori Smathers, a regular at University Settlement. “I feel like it just like saved me.”
Smathers receives disability and food assistance benefits from the federal government. The food stamps alone aren’t enough to keep food on the table for the entire month, leaving her to seek assistance from University Settlement. The uncertainty surrounding the future of SNAP benefits is beyond concerning, she said.
“It worries me because for March, I’ll probably end up coming more to the food bank [if the government doesn’t re-open],” Smathers said. “It is hard enough out here. They are making it harder.”
Teresea Keys is in a similar situation with a major caveat. Keys was recently granted approval to receive SNAP benefits last week. However, with the early distribution of SNAP benefits, Keys didn’t receive any. March will be the earliest time she could receive benefits. On Friday, she stopped by University Settlement to pick up enough food to get her and her four children through the weekend.
“The food bank places that are helping people for the shutdown, it’s coming in handy. People are having a hard time out here,” Keys said. “The food banks are probably going to see more of a crowd. After February, what can they do? What can we do?”
Those are the two questions vexing the leaders of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. The agency’s help center has been busy fielding phone calls from confused SNAP recipients. The near daily food distribution events continue as well.
However, despite pumping out 58 million meals in 2018, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank will have difficulty keeping up with demand if SNAP benefits cease.
“The SNAP program is our country’s first line of defense in the fight against hunger. It is what keeps people from going hungry day to day all across America,” said Kristin Warzocha, the president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. “We don’t know what happens if the shut down lasts beyond [February]. The SNAP program provides 12 times as many meals nationally as every food bank in country put together. We cannot make up for the loss of the SNAP program.”
Currently, there is no additional funding for March benefits. Nearly 40 million low-income Americans are enrolled in the SNAP program. The federal government doles out SNAP benefit money to the states, who, in turn, disburse the money to counties. Although SNAP applications are processed through the county, the GCFB provides assistance with SNAP benefit applications.
“SNAP doesn’t last all month long. It may last a client for a couple of weeks. In addition to the personal dollars that [SNAP recipients] are trying to stretch as much as they can, emergency food centers then step in,” Warzocha said. “If the SNAP program runs out in the month of March, we know the clients are going to be turning to us and our partner agencies for well more than a handful of day's supply of food. That’s an enormous challenge to meet that need. We cannot increase our distribution by 12 times overnight.”
Warzocha said food bank staff and volunteers have doubled-down on their fundraising and donation collection efforts from the agency’s 900 sponsors. The GCFB has reached out to all of those sponsors to apprise them of the potentially dire situation.
