About one in seven Polk County residents received food stamps in September to avoid hunger, according to a Florida database, and yet the federally funded SNAP safety net is set to go unfunded on Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown.
Of those recipients statewide, 43% are children, a Florida Department of Children and Families report said. Polk County’s numbers approximate the statewide data.
At the United Way of Central Florida the loss of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits is expected to impact 15% of Polk households, or 42,402, according to the organization’s CEO and President Christina Jackson Criser.
Nationwide about 42 million people could lose access to SNAP benefits if the government shutdown continues beyond Nov. 1, according to a USA Today report.
Food pantries are bracing for dire need
Without access to SNAP benefits, residents are anticipated to search for food from nonprofit food pantries, leaving the pantries bracing for a significant uptick in Polk County residents seeking help.
“It’s going to be off the charts with everything that is going to come into play on Nov. 1st,” said Latesa Faison, who oversees the pantry at the Bibleway Resource Center in Auburndale. The center is a ministry of the Church of God the Bibleway Inc. in Winter Haven.
Cartons of food are distributed during a drive-thru event at Blessings & Hope Food Pantry in Lakeland in 2020, during the height of COVID. The nonprofit is concerned it doesn’t have enough food for the increased demand if SNAP benefits are delayed in November.
“After Nov. 1, when food stamps are discontinued nationwide, our ministry will be hit hard,” she said in a text Oct. 29. “We’ll depend on donations more than ever to keep feeding families, supporting the homeless, and providing basic necessities for those in need.”
“Every contribution will help us stand in the gap and continue serving our community during this critical time,” Faison said.
She had already seen a growing demand for food assistance with 50 to 70 new people signing up each week for food distribution, an amount steadily rising over the past month.
The food pantry now feeds up to 500 people per week, Faison said.
In Lakeland, Pastor Alan Fretto of Blessings and Hope food pantry, now in its 14th year, also has seen a sharp increase in food recipients.
“We have had a demonstrative increase in the number of people who have been coming in the last few months,” he said. “And I would say we are at least 10% more each week than we usually have.”
“We are getting to the point that we are running out of food,” Fretto said. “We’re not getting it from the supply chain. People usually get anywhere from 35 to 50 pounds of food.
“As of Tuesday (Oct.28), which is our normal day of distribution, I would say we had an increase of probably 150 families come to register, and we got to the end of the day and our shelves are empty,” he said.
“We have had a demonstrative increase in the number of people who have been coming in the last few months,” said Pastor Alan Fretto, of Blessings & Hope food pantry, seen here during a COVID distribution event in 2020. “And I would say we are at least 10% more each week than we usually have.”
Blessings and Hope feeds about 3,000 people per week, Fretto said. He added his drive-thru distribution line contained 75 to 100 more cars this week by comparison to the usual line. Some vehicles contained people from additional families as carpooling has increase.
“And all the food stamps and everything has not kicked in yet, so I am not sure where we are going,” he added. “We’ve been talking about, ‘What do we do on Tuesday because we don’t have the supply?’ Right now, they are going to get a very minimal amount of distribution.”
Large networks of food pantries expect increased demand
At Feeding Tampa Bay, which supports several food pantries in Polk County, the need has increased since the pandemic, said Shannon Oliviero, the group’s public affairs director. And recently they have seen an acceleration in food recipient numbers since the government shutdown and the layoffs of federal workers.
“At Feeding Tampa Bay, we have been supporting those workers who have not been receiving pay since it started,” she said.
During the group’s 2020-2021 fiscal year amid COVID, the group served 92 million meals. Last year, they served 100 million meals.
She said the nonprofit has provided 150,000 meals per week recently throughout its 400-partner network. The group maintains website pages for furloughed workers and has added a SNAP page.
The group provides both pantry days providing recipients with a shopping experience and mega pantry days with drive-thru distribution of enough food to make a week’s worth of meals.
Feeding Tampa Bay feeds 250,000 households in a 10-county region, including Polk County.
Feeding Tampa Bay is one of the 10 largest food banks in the United States.
Catholic Charities also supports three pantries in Polk County in Lakeland, Winter Haven and Lake Wales, according to Deacon Gary Tester with the Catholic Diocese of Orlando.
Even if SNAP benefits are restored today, Catholic Charities and most nonprofits said they expect to increase food distribution for several more weeks due to the disruption the government shutdown has caused.
About 43% of SNAP recipients are children in Polk County and Florida
According to the Department of Children and Families:
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Total Recipients: Approximately 2.98 million people received SNAP benefits monthly in FY 2024, representing about 12.7% of Florida’s population (roughly 23.5 million residents). This ranks Florida 19th nationally in terms of the share of its population on SNAP, slightly above the U.S. average of 12.3%.
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Households Served: Around 1.2 million households participate monthly (estimated based on national averages of 2-3 people per SNAP household).
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Average Monthly Benefit: $130 per person, or about $1.44 per meal. Total program spending in Florida for FY 2024 was approximately $4.5 billion to $5 billion (proportional to national trends).
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Children on SNAP: Residents getting SNAP benefits younger than 18 in Florida number over 1.28 million, or one in seven children statewide. Children are 43% of individuals getting food stamps.
Who will feed Polk County children?
Schools are the largest providers of meals for kids.
Breakfast and lunch will continue to be provided to children attending Polk County Public Schools, which feeds them each school day.
Volunteers with Blessings and Hope in Lakeland during a mass distribution event during COVID in 2020. Blessings and Hope says it feeds about 3,000 people per week and is starting to see a shortage of food.
“All PCPS students can receive free breakfast and lunch daily at school — that service will not be disrupted by the current situation with the federal government,” said Kyle Kennedy, a senior media relations coordinator for the district.
How are churches responding?
According to the Lakeland-headquartered United Methodist Conference of Florida, Bishop Tom Berlin said by phone Oct. 30 that he has been communicating with the various churches about their anticipated need for additional food within the communities they serve.
“More people are showing up and with the end of SNAP, they are anticipating many more showing up,” Berlin said of the many food pantries at Florida’s churches.
“So it is predictable, if people have an income source for food that is no longer available, they will search for food in places like food pantries and churches,” he added.
“At the same time this is happening, churches are finding that food banks have less resources than they have had in the past,” Berlin said.
“The deepest concern that we have as United Methodists is that food insecurity will disproportionately impact children,” he said.
“It would seem to be in the interest of Florida citizens if those would are elected representatives would find a way to deal with food insecurity that the end of SNAP is creating,” he said.
At AmpleHarvest.org, a New Jersey-based nonprofit providing fresh food from local gardeners to a network of 8,000 food pantries in 5,000 communities across the United States, its founder called the anticipated demand from the possible delay of SNAP benefits “massive.”
“It’s going to be massive. The impact is going to be huge and devastating to both the health and by extension the wealth of the country,” said founder Gary Oppenheimer. “Because what is ultimately going to happen is if you have malnourished people, they get sick, you get more medical costs, etc.”
And for those individuals who want to help the hungry, he added, food drives are not as beneficial as donating money. And he has a TedTalk about this dynamic.
“They should be donating money, it goes 10 times further,” he said. “So if you donate a $3 box of corn flakes, that’s nice. But if you donated $3, that would buy 10 boxes of corn flakes.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk County charities brace for huge surge if SNAP benefits stall
