During the time that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits were not being paid by the federal government, food pantries such as one in the Morningside area of Sioux City were getting many more people taking food.
Larry Martin, a longstanding volunteer at the Grace United Methodist Church Food Pantry, on Wednesday said the number of people served surged during the first two weeks of November. That was shown by many first-timers coming for food and long lines just to get them into the pantry area of the church.
Grace UMC operates the food pantry for three hours each Monday and Wednesday, with items that come from the Food Bank of Siouxland and elsewhere.
Prior to the SNAP benefits shutdown, Martin said the number of people at the pantry averaged about 30 per day. That amount doubled to 60 or more per day.
“They were all concerned. A lot of them were talking about not having the food, the SNAP program available to them, that they would normally have gotten that first (November) weekend,” Martin said.
The fate of SNAP payments in November swung back and forth as the Trump Administration challenged various court orders requiring payments to be made during the federal government shutdown. Once that was over, the EBT cards of people in Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska were set again with benefits from November 12 to 14.
Once that happened, the Grace UMC Food Pantry numbers of users this week dropped off. However, Martin said he expects higher than average usage through the holidays, as people get their finances squared back up.
