AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texans are beginning to sound the alarm regarding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan (SNAP) benefits.
“SNAP benefits for November won’t be issued if the federal government shutdown continues past Oct. 27,” the Texas Department of State Health Services website said.
While the website stipulates that Medicaid, WIC, TANF and CHIP benefits won’t be affected, the 3.7 million Texans (roughly 11% of the population) who rely on SNAP to pay for groceries will be the first to feel the fullest and most direct effects from the federal shutdown.
“We’ve been struggling since February,” Gatesville woman Heather Penny told Nexstar. February is when Penny lost her job after caring for her grandmother’s stroke. “My fiancé is the only one working, and even with his full-time job, we can’t keep up. Every paycheck goes straight to bills and our mortgage, and we’re already behind. I’ve been trying to find remote work, but between my health and the competition, it’s been nearly impossible.”
For Penny, SNAP benefits presented a lifeline to get food on the table for her two children at home. This includes her son who has Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder.
“He doesn’t understand why he can’t just eat when he’s hungry,” Penny said. “We have to ration food, and when he’s told no — even for a small snack — his emotions explode. He goes from calm to furious in seconds, and it can last for hours. It’s heartbreaking. And it’s terrifying.”
Penny certainly isn’t alone in her struggles. One single mother of four kids, who asked Nexstar not to use her name, is also on the edge.
“I am extremely concerned about how I am going to put food on the table next month,” she said. “We will be surviving day by day if this shutdown continues. It’s very scary, very stressful, and is keeping me on edge. It’s already hard as a single mother paying for everything by myself, now to add a whole other bill to my plate has taken a big toll on me.”
Food banks are also bracing for an influx of customers after already taking on an extra load.
“We’ve already seen about a 35% increase in reliance on our services,” Sari Vatske, the President and CEO of the Central Texas Food Bank, said. “In the 21 counties that the Central Texas food bank serves alone, we have about 127,000 households that rely on SNAP assistance. Assuming the average household receives about $400 a month, we are looking at a shortfall of about $51 million a month.”
Currently, most food banks serve in a supportive role to SNAP but not as a replacement.
“[For] every 10 meals a low-income person gets, nine are from SNAP and one is from a food bank,” San Antonio Food Bank Chief Philanthropy Officer Michael Guerra said. “[SNAP benefits expiring] probably means that we’re just going to have to ration. We do ration food right now because there’s more need than there is food, but if we have a need that two, three [or] four times what we normally serve, we won’t be able to scale that fast.”
In Central Texas, the food bank is currently spending about $1.3 million a month on food, Vatske said.
“That is not a sustainable number… we certainly are not able to make up $51 million per month,” she said. “We are fortunate that we can rely on the community for volunteers and stand up additional distributions, but we cannot do it alone. We need the government to reopen.”
Guerra feels confident the food bank system, particularly the Feeding Texas system, can weather the storm — citing their response to COVID and natural disasters. However, unlike those hardships, this one is completely man-made.
“I have a son who’s a federal contractor,” Guerra said. “He’s working without a paycheck right now, right? And he’s not Republican or Democrat — he’s just a son to me. So I just hope that our folks across the aisle see family members, see young individuals or even individuals who are older and near retirement — they want to do their job… The message [to Congress] would be ‘Hey look, let’s not put people in a spot of hunger to solve political issues.'”
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