‘Wish we could do more’: Food pantries stretched thin as SNAP is set to stop next week

INDIANAPOLIS — Tabatha Miller stood among the aisles of a near east side food pantry Monday morning. A small watermelon and a case of pudding sat in her cart.

Miller, who is homeless, has been coming to Westminster Neighborhood Services for food since she was a kid. 

About six minutes away, Morgan Elizabeth Horton and her daughter, who’s disabled, stacked sandwiches, cheese curds and Gatorade onto a cart at First Free Methodist Church.

While the women were at different food pantries, they shared the same concern: what will they do when Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, benefits don’t come through next week?

”I live off of that,” Miller said. ”It’s going to be hard. It’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

The USDA posted a notice Sunday saying federal food aid will not go out the first of next month as the government shutdown drags on. It read in part, “Bottom line, the well has run dry.”

“I just have to keep moving forward to find what my family needs,” Horton said. 

The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which distributes SNAP benefits, confirmed in an email that the state cannot issue November SNAP benefits until funding is restored. The 600,000 Hoosiers who rely on SNAP are now facing a bleak future as the uncertainty of their next meal looms overhead. 

Mark Lynch, Indy Hunger Network director of advocacy, said the current government shutdown, now the second longest in history, is uncharted territory for how to handle SNAP.

“The complication for this government shutdown is that it came at the beginning of a fiscal year before any legislation was done to fund these programs,” Lynch said.

As the federal uncertainty continues, food pantries like those at Westminster Neighborhood Services and First Free Methodist Church are doing what they can to pick up the slack.

Westminster Neighborhood Services Executive Director Emily Nelson said their food pantry used to see 70 to 80 people come in on any given day. Now, their new normal is 100 to 115.

It’s a similar story at First Free Methodist Church. Lead pastor Kevin DeVries said they served a record number of people last month: 130 families in a day.

“It’s heartbreaking, honestly, to see how [the USDA notice] is going to affect the people who already come here and knowing that we’re probably only going to get more people coming through who are just trying to make it,” Nelson said. 

Lynch said the state has some contingency funds they could dip into for a variety of reasons, but it’s unclear if they would use the money to make up for SNAP.

“My understanding is the USDA is letting them know that if they choose to do that they will not be reimbursed for those dollars,” Lynch said. 

Neighbors said they’re taking it one day at a time, thankful for every meal that comes from a food pantry. The pantries themselves are hopeful for the day when their services won’t be so desperately needed.  

”I have to tell myself every day we’re doing what we can, but I wish we could do more,” Nelson said. 

Lynch said, on a federal level, there are SNAP contingency dollars they can use when SNAP runs out of money, but it hasn’t technically run out of money since it has not been approved for the fiscal year. Lynch said legislation would have to essentially override that technicality. 

“These are real people, real sons and daughters, moms and dads that we have the ability in our country to take care of their needs,” DeVries said. “It’s really about choices. What are we choosing to prioritize in our world?”