Federal cuts, SNAP freeze stirs need — and generosity — at Olathe food pantry
.jpeg "Volunteer Kristi Keeton worked a shift at New Hope Food Pantry in Olathe, filling vehicles with food. During the government shutdown and amid federal cuts, pantries like this one in Olathe are helping families and seniors at a critical time.")
Hours before a freeze on federal food assistance benefits was scheduled to go into effect midnight Friday, a line formed outside the New Hope Food Pantry in Olathe.
A young mom with her children waited alongside several seniors, a couple of young men and one grandmother who said she just learned a few days ago that recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (referred to as SNAP) likely wouldn’t be getting their November benefits.
And though grandmother Virginia Ward, 71, said she only receives a small amount each month, the SNAP benefits help fill her cupboards. As she waited for her turn to get a trunk load of food, she said people in Washington D.C. need to understand what the shutdown is doing to many across the nation.
“The politicians should really feel the people that is actually depending on SNAP,” Ward said. “We are not people that should be tossed here, there, to and fro. We should be treated as people that rely on our state, our city to help us in hard times.
“Don’t fight, but help mend the situation.”
Due to the shutdown, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on its website that the SNAP benefits, often known as food stamps, wouldn’t go out the first of the month like it normally does.
However, a federal judge in Rhode Island on Friday ordered the Trump administration to continue paying for SNAP during the shutdown. The decision required the Trump administration to use emergency funding to pay benefits in November “as soon as possible.”
It remains unclear, though, how soon the money is expected to reach the millions of people across the U.S. who rely on the federal program. The Justice Department has not indicated if it plans to appeal the decision, The New York Times reported on Friday.
It also isn’t clear when the government shutdown will end. And that leads the local food bank, pantries and other agencies across the Kansas City area scrambling to come up with resources and ways to help people in need.
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Those who run the New Hope Food Pantry, and the volunteers and church members who help support it, know that in the coming weeks that more people may be lining up if the shutdown continues and SNAP benefits aren’t immediately restored.
“I don’t doubt that there’s going to be an effect,” said Luke Stivers, the pantry’s director. “It is clear, if you lose SNAP benefits, that creates some pressure and we’ll feel that eventually.”
‘Important to be available’
The New Hope Food Pantry, located at 13310 S. Blackbob Road, has been in operation since 2011 and is sponsored by New Hope Presbyterian Church in America. Last year, the pantry served 40,000 people.
During the week, the pantry provides food to typically 50 families per day. Though in the past three months, that has gotten up to 77 to 79 on a single day, the pantry said.
Each person receives roughly 25 pounds of food per month. In September, the Olathe pantry provided food to 1,084 families — which accounted for 4,145 people. That was up from August, when it was 898 families and 3,384 people.
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On Friday afternoon, in the minutes before the pantry opened, Lauren Alexandra motioned to the bins and boxes and shelves of not only fresh produce and canned goods, and freezers of meat and other protein.
“We’re pretty stocked now,” said Alexandra, pantry assistant. “But we’ll probably be out by the end of the day.”
Many pantries throughout the Kansas City area have limited hours on limited days. But New Hope Food Pantry is open Monday through Friday from 1 to 6 p.m.
“We think it’s really important to be available,” Stivers said. “Being open that many days and up to 6 p.m. affords us the ability to provide food for someone who’s put in a long day at work. And we noticed that the people that come at 5:45 on Friday, they’re working people. Usually it’s dads with a bunch of kids.”
An onslaught of help
In recent days, the pantry has been fielding more calls. Not just from people needing assistance, but businesses and families wanting to help, Alexandra said.
“I’ve gotten so many calls,” she said. In the past few days, the pantry was inundated with help from people and organizations, including churches and neighborhoods and scouts.
“Everybody’s really been pitching in,” she said. “I’ve been really overwhelmed because our shelves were quite bare, but the generosity of people this week has been astounding.
“Because they know what’s coming up and what’s going on.”
The pantry still need donations, Alexandra said, not just food but financial as well.
“It costs a lot of money to run our trucks,” she said. “They run every day.”
Those who want to help in some way can go to the pantry’s website here.
Within 20 minutes Friday afternoon, Ward had gone from waiting in line to having a volunteer fill her car trunk with food. Including canned goods and fresh fruit and a bag of potatoes.
As Ward put it: “They take care of us.”
The Star’s Kacen Bayless contributed to this report.
