‘Overwhelmed already’: Food banks, pantries carry on with SNAP emergency plans

The Greater Chicago Food Depository will set up temporary distribution sites in areas with the highest concentration of SNAP participants starting Saturday.

Though a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture must use contingency funds for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program during the federal government shutdown, nonprofits that were bracing for a cutoff in benefits along with surging demand are still keeping emergency response plans in place.

Even with a judicial ruling to fund SNAP or even if the federal government reopens, SNAP participants will still experience some delay in their benefits, food depository spokesperson Man-Yee Lee confirmed. And tens of thousands of federal workers are missing paychecks because of the shutdown.

“Our emergency response will continue as needed and, right now, community need is very real,” Lee added.

Loaves & Fishes — considered the largest pantry in Illinois — also expects that many SNAP recipients are still likely to face delays in having their debit cards reloaded. So Loaves & Fishes will proceed with its plan, including having extended hours starting Saturday at its Aurora hub. A prepacked box of groceries will be available through curbside distribution.

With a four-county service area, the nonprofit has warned it could see “an unprecedented surge in need” on top of already record-high numbers if benefits are delayed or paused during the shutdown. Loaves & Fishes serves about 10,000 people a week.

“The charitable food system can't really withstand a doubling or tripling the number of people. The infrastructure is not there, nor the food supply, to serve that magnitude of people in this quick of a fashion,” CEO Mike Havala said. “Obviously, everybody is working hard to do everything they can to be able to absorb more people.”

The state administers roughly $350 million in federal SNAP benefits per month. Nearly 2 million people in Illinois receive SNAP.

“There's no possible way we can meet that gap. For every one meal we can provide, SNAP provides nine,” said Jen Lamplough, chief impact officer of the Northern Illinois Food Bank.

The judge’s order makes clear the USDA must use available contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits and, if contingency funds cannot fully fund the program in November, the federal government has discretion to use other additional funding sources, according to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office. Raoul joined a group of his counterparts and governors in filing a lawsuit on Tuesday.

The court has given the USDA until the end of the day on Nov. 3 to let it know whether the agency will authorize benefits for November, and whether it will fully or partially fund the SNAP program.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository typically serves around 200,000 household visits a month through its partner pantries and programs, and roughly 40% of those are SNAP participants.

“If SNAP benefits are disrupted, our nation will face a historic hunger crisis. There's no two ways about it,” Lee said earlier this week.

‘Overwhelmed already’

The food depository has prepared a two-tiered response. The organization will be delivering more food — always at no cost — to its network of partners in the coming days and weeks. At the temporary sites, prepackaged boxes of groceries will be distributed on Saturdays in November. The depository is starting with six locations and planning for more on subsequent Saturdays if needed.

“Our food pantries have been overwhelmed already,” Lee said. “Families are dealing with elevated food prices and high cost of living, and housing costs and utility bills are also at highs that we haven't seen in many, many years.”

The vast majority of people who turn to Loaves & Fishes do not receive SNAP. Havala referred to the “SNAP gap”: people who earn too much money to qualify for benefits, but not enough to pay for the basic cost of living.

“That’s a huge part of the population, and that’s typically most of the people that we see,” he said.

Loaves & Fishes has set up a Hunger Action Fund. With the dollars raised, it can buy food at a “meaningful discount” through bulk or volume purchases, Havala said.

“Certainly right now, we’re in great need of resources, financial resources, to buy all the additional food that we need to, again, try and meet this big spike in demand,” he said.

In DuPage County, more than 67,000 residents rely on SNAP to buy groceries, the Illinois Department of Human Services reported. Amid the uncertainty, staff are standing by 24/7 to help people in need, said county board member Greg Schwarze, who chairs its human services committee.

“We have our 211 social service hotline, which anybody can call any time of day or night, 24 hours a day, and actually get a live person on the phone, and that person can help direct them to their local food pantries as needed,” he said.

Fremont Township in the Mundelein area relies on donations for its small food pantry, which is open by appointment only.

“There are a lot of food drives going on right now,” Supervisor Diana O'Kelly said. “People are so concerned.”

Generosity also has been a constant at Libertyville Township, which operates a pantry, said Supervisor Kathleen O'Connor.

“We had somebody yesterday drop off a check for $5,000,” she said.

— Daily Herald staff writer Mick Zawislak contributed to this report.