- SNAP and CalFresh benefits will end Saturday. Even a budget approval will at best mean a delay of food benefits distribution.
- Poverello House expects demand for free meals to double as benefits end.
- Nonprofits put out the call for donations and volunteers as many have already experienced federal grant cuts.
By Saturday, the hundreds of thousands of Fresno area families using SNAP or CalFresh won’t be able to access the money that supplies food for their pantries.
“For every one meal that food banks and our member partners like the Poverello House provide, or the Fresno Mission provide, SNAP provides nine. … We’re bracing for what we anticipate to be a really rough November.” — Kym Dildine, co-CEO, Central California Food Bank
And, even an 11th hour refunding by the federal government won’t be in time to get the program funded. Thus Fresno nonprofits are gearing for a deluge of demand…