Portland SNAP recipients: ‘Am I gonna have a meal today?’

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Thomas Nelson and his wife’s SNAP benefit cards would normally refill on the first day of the month. But those funds are frozen as the government shutdown continues.

“It’s really frustrating because everybody has to eat. So now I got to struggle,” Nelson told KOIN 6 News. “Am I’m gonna have a meal for the day or not?”

His SNAP card balance as November began: 34 cents.

The Nelsons aren’t alone. Millions of people across the country — including hundreds of thousands in Oregon and southwest Washington are now forced to find food in other places like the East County Food Pantry.

“As our recipient numbers have grown, the food that we have received has — this is a lot less than it used to be,” said Julie Weindel, the director of operations for the East County Food Pantry.

One of the volunteers at the East County Food Pantry knows all too well what it’s like to go hungry. It’s what motivates Susan Windsor to help.

“I was poor enough at one point when I was pregnant with one of my children that I had to split a can of creamed corn between two of my children,” she said. “They said, ‘Mommy, are you hungry?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I’m not hungry, so can you eat it.’ And I don’t want to see any other families go through that.”

A US District judge ordered the Trump Administration to either make a full payment by Monday or, if it decides to only tap $3 billion in a contingency fund, figure out how to do that by Wednesday. Trump said he wanted more legal clarification before resuming the payments.

Holy Redeemer Food Pantry manager Mary Ellen LaRose said they’re seeing a lot more clients now.

“Last Wednesday and last Saturday, we were really hit,” she told KOIN 6 News. “And before the food stamp program even went away, that the end of the month for people is really difficult because I think they run out of whatever food stamps they did have by the end of the month. So we anticipate that that this large number of people coming in will continue.”

LaRose said they try to make sure people are only coming every two weeks. “But under these circumstances we are certainly going to prepare and accept people every week if that’s necessary.”

Multnomah County is planning to partially activate their emergency operations center to use county resources to aid emergency food services. Clackamas County also declared a state of emergency earlier this week, pledging $100,000 to help buy food.

St. Vincent de Paul pantry locations

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek authorized $5 million to assist food pantries. But that might not be enough.

“The food pantries, whether it’s ours, whether it’s one of the others around, are a lifeline because of the SNAP situation,” Weidel said. “And we don’t have a lot of money to go buy food. So we depend on donations of food or money.”