In the wake of the federal shutdown, San Antonio organizations and government assistance programs have reported experiencing a halt in federal funding, impeding operations. Delayed federal funds have made the future of government assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, uncertain.
On Oct. 17, Texas officials warned that if the government shutdown continued until Oct. 27, SNAP benefits would not be disbursed in November. The shutdown has continued and delayed the distribution of $615 million in benefits. This setback in funding has impacted 3.5 million Texans, including 300,000 Bexar County Residents, and the 1.7 million children who depend on SNAP for groceries.
President and CEO of San Antonio Food Bank Eric Cooper explains what this delay means for the Food Bank during an interview with The Paisano.
“In the last 12 months, the San Antonio Food Bank served about 577,000 people. SNAP serves about 370,000 people,” Cooper emphasized. “SNAP recipients are stocking up. They’re coming to the food bank to get assistance because they do not know when the assistance from SNAP will come.”
SA Food Banks forecast an increase in the people they serve due to the SNAP delay.
In October, the SA Food Bank said it needs $500,000 per week to serve an additional 1 million pounds of food for a growing population in need.
“Delaying [recipients’] benefit will cause them to potentially go without food, and their income is inadequate, so therefore they will surely lean on the San Antonio Food Bank, so that we could see up to 370,000 people, should the government not open soon,” Cooper noted.
When explaining the implications of delayed SNAP benefits, Cooper articulates that nonprofits cannot completely substitute where the government left off.
“For every one meal a food bank provides a family in need, SNAP typically provides about nine, and so, if there’s a SNAP cut or SNAP delay, we would have to double, triple, quadruple, all the way up to nine times the size to be able to provide the type of volume of food that the SNAP program provides,” Cooper said. He stressed that “nonprofits or philanthropy can’t make up the difference in public support.”
In addition to SNAP benefits heightening the organization’s workload, Cooper expects that more federal workers furloughed or working without pay will turn to the food bank.
“We estimate that we’ll see about 50,000 federal workers and their family members,” Cooper posits. “One social security administration worker told me she’s raising her grandkids, and she was worried that they wouldn’t have food to eat, and so she came to the food bank.”
SA Food Bank is confident that it will continue supporting San Antonio residents in need; however, Cooper stresses that it cannot support a large portion of residents indefinitely if the shutdown is prolonged.
“We only have about four weeks’ worth of food in our warehouse, and so we’re watching it closely,” Cooper said.
Funding cuts to organizations have been prominent during the shutdown, with Eagle Flight Advocacy and Outreach feeling the impact. Eagle Flight serves seniors, disabled people and women fleeing domestic violence, also providing food, clothing and baby supplies.
The organization has reduced its biweekly food distribution to once every three weeks because its yearly $75,000 grant —30% of its budget —has been suspended. The organization assists 70 families per day and 150,000 people annually.
With a portion of its budget gone, organizations scramble to stretch resources to meet such a large population.
