COVID-era augmentations to SNAP/Basic Food Benefits will end this month. Though every recipient’s situation will be different, we heard from a local senior residing alone whose benefit will go from $250 to $69 per month. A senior or disabled person receiving the minimum payment will go to as little as $23 per month.
Charities from the grassroots level like ShareNet up to national anti-hunger advocates are anticipating a wave of newly reactivated food insecurity, what they’re calling the “Hunger Cliff,” especially given what inflation and supply-line challenges have done to food prices in recent years.
That difference in benefits will be critical for those on the edge. When the augmentation was in effect that same difference, along with stimulus payments and the uncertainties of COVID, caused a decline in usage at registered food banks across Kitsap County.
Now those folks are expected back, along with newer patrons showing up for the first time at food pantries because soaring prices have jettisoned already precarious budgets. An adequate food supply, not to mention a nutritious one, is simply out of reach for many.
The introduction of House Bill 1784 Hunger Relief is an indication of how seriously state and anti-hunger advocates are taking information provided by local food banks on the front lines of the issue. HB 1784 is an emergency remedy to include additional funds for food banks, Fruit and Vegetable Incentive Programs, andSenior Meal and home delivery programs, and if passed to expedite assistance by late March or April.
These supplemental appropriations do not represent permanent policy changes, are meant to get food on the ground faster than the usual speed of government, and do not represent a loss to other areas of crisis, such as housing or mental health.
Food banks in Kitsap are typically not going to have lines around the building the way a large urban food bank will during crisis; that symbol (or clickbait image) is not how food shortages, the inflationary climate, or all levels of hunger, from intermittent to acute, is evident locally.
What we have seen are record numbers served on specific days, and the usual supply sources for food banks drying up, their own procurement ability much compromised in this operating environment. Inventory at the largest food banks, the kind that consolidate food receiving and procurement and distribute to smaller food pantries, are down by as much as 80% from this point last year, though the trend goes back further than that.
Historically these food bank distribution centers have had the best access to aftermarket food, but no longer. The food that does get through is often an odd assortment of goods not necessarily in high demand and difficult to distribute uniformly.
ShareNet was early to the majority food-purchased game. We had to be, because what we received through traditional food bank supply lines or from local Grocery Rescue was not enough for the number of clients we served, nor was it consistently quality or nutritious goods, nor were these goods suitable for our program for schoolchildren, Food2GO. Because of that we were better prepared than most—the food pantries only now having to purchase a significant percentage, or most, of what they distribute.
Prepared or not, that doesn’t mean we’re not affected by an 80% drop in distribution center inventory, or the cost of food, or more clients at our door, because of course we are. In a way it turns the traditional food pantry model, relying on partner supply streams, local donations and community food drives, on its head, but ShareNet has done this level of purchasing for a long time, and we’ve been fortunate to have the great community support that allows us to do this.
Mark Ince is executive director of ShareNet and can be reached at 360-297-2266 or director@sharenetfoodbank.org .
