AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
SNAP benefits have now been officially halted due to the ongoing government shutdown, and some of the 42 million people who rely on the program to buy food are already feeling the consequences. Two separate court rulings on Friday ordered the Trump administration to resume payments for food stamps out of an emergency fund, and the judge gave the government until Monday to present a plan. But when benefits will return and how much money will reach people in need remains unclear. In the meantime, food banks around the country are stepping up to help.
Elizabeth Keever is the chief resource officer at Harvesters, a food bank in Kansas City, Missouri. Thank you so much for joining us.
ELIZABETH KEEVER: Thank you for having me, Ayesha.
RASCOE: So your organization works with a nonprofit network in two states, Kansas and Missouri, to get food to people in need. You've been out this weekend at one of the distribution sites. What have you been seeing and hearing since these benefits ran out?
KEEVER: Well, most certainly, the overwhelming response has been just fear and uncertainty. I was at the Sheffield Family Life Center mobile distribution and the Sacred Heart Guadalupe Church mobile distribution. And one of the things that was immediately apparent was that there is a significant increase in need, and a lot of times for folks who are utilizing mobile distributions and our pantries for the very first time. At one of the sites, the cars started lining up as early as 4 in the morning. By the time 10:30 rolled around at Sheffield Family Life Center, we had to start turning cars away. And as I was leaving, we turned down 10 cars. So when the last trunks got full and the pallets ran out of food, it just was - it was really hard to see.
RASCOE: Do food banks have the ability to fill the gap when SNAP benefits are not in play?
KEEVER: Well, that's - the really big problem is we're in uncharted territory. We have always been the supplement to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. And when you think about the county I was in alone - I was in Jackson County. There are 92,000 folks in that county who are on SNAP benefits, and the monthly distribution that is anticipated for that county alone is $19 million. That's more than our organization receives in charitable contributions for an entire year. So it's nearly impossible to make up the gap that SNAP is leaving us, but we're doing everything we can to make sure that we are easing this burden for folks. And it's just this really scary moment where there's a lot of uncertainty. So the gap is massive, and at the end of the day, food banks can't necessarily fill it.
RASCOE: After the courts weighed in, President Trump announced that he's directed government lawyers to find a way to pay SNAP benefits. But administration officials have previously said that there's not enough in the emergency fund to cover the whole month and that it could take weeks to arrange partial payments. What does this mean for people who need money to buy food right now?
KEEVER: This is a really big challenge with the judge's ruling. We don't know what's going to happen. The administration has until Monday to respond, and it takes every state a little bit different timeline to process those EBT benefits onto someone's card. You know, on the state of Kansas, we're expecting it to be 72 hours after the state gets it. Not to mention, there is a lack of knowledge on how even a partial distribution will even work to the states.
One of the things that we were really concerned about was people are going to read the headlines and the news saying the judge orders SNAP benefits to be paid with the emergency funds and think that everything's OK. They're going to get their SNAP benefits. And at the end of the day, that's not the reality. We've got, you know, over 150,000 people in the Kansas City metro region who utilize SNAP benefits, and that's on top of the 30,000 federal civilian workers that we have here as well.
RASCOE: You talked about how much uncertainty there is around when benefits could actually resume. And right now there's no end in sight to the government shutdown. How could a long delay affect the work you do in the days and weeks ahead?
KEEVER: Well, the big challenge is we have to do everything we can to bring in as much inventory to offset this increase in demand. On top of which, we're headed into the holiday season, where we know our partner agencies already see an influx. It's absolutely unsustainable for a prolonged shutdown without SNAP benefits. There is no way organizations like Harvesters and, frankly, any food bank across the country can offset what is lost in SNAP benefits. For every one meal an organization like Harvesters provides, SNAP provides nine, and we don't have the ability to overnight make up that loss.
RASCOE: That's Elizabeth Keever, chief resource officer at Harvesters, a food bank in Kansas City. Thank you so much.
KEEVER: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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