The federal government will stop payments to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients this weekend if the shutdown continues, and states are stepping in to figure out how to keep people from going hungry. Food bank volunteers are mobilizing to help, and many were already anticipating more need, because of cuts to SNAP that congress passed earlier this year.
Eight volunteers load squash into boxes and put the produce on trucks, at the Northside Presbyterian Church in Blacksburg. Frost hit earlier than they’d expected, so they had to harvest the last of their crops quickly. Hundreds of pounds of winter squash are heading to food banks this week, right at a pivotal time, said Charlie Herbert.
“It’s just such a need out there right now,” Herbert said. “People are hungry, and they were hungry before the SNAP benefits were cut. And now that they’re cut, it’s gonna get even worse.”…