The Lovelady Center estimating $80,000 loss every month SNAP benefits are suspended, calls on community for help

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) – The Lovelady Center estimates it will lose $80,000 a month while SNAP benefits are suspended. In response to this, the organization is calling on the community to help them get through this period.

“It just kind of puts us in limbo, I mean we fully expect that everything will be restored but just with all the stuff that’s going on, we just don’t know when that’s going to be,” said Frank Long, the development director at The Lovelady Center.

Long says The Lovelady Center is the nation’s largest long-term recovery center for women and children.

“In house, here at the center, as of this morning, we have 537 adult females and 111 of their children. So that’s a big population to feed each and every day,” he said.

According to The Lovelady Center, it takes $1 million a year to serve 1,900 meals a day and more than $80,000 comes from food stamp programs like SNAP benefits.

“About 80% of [the women] qualify for SNAP benefits so, you know, a lot of people may not realize that’s how that offsets our food cost a great deal and thank goodness for it,” said Long. “At the end of the day, we know that it’s God that provides, not the government. However, that’s really helped.”

The Lovelady Center is now calling on the community for any kind of donation, be it time, food or money.

“Being situated in Birmingham, it’s one of the most generous communities in the United States,” Long said. “We’ve always had a great deal of support from our generous donors, we get a great deal of support from our two thrift stores so we’re going to be ok.”

The Lovelady Center says it’s holding out hope SNAP benefits will be restored soon but it is working to determine how many months it will be able to operate as normal with the loss it’s expecting.