Non-perishable foods lined up on a table. Donating non-perishable foods to food pantrys is a beneficial way to help people in need of food assistance. Photo courtesy of Gaining Visuals via Unsplash
Due to the government shutdown, families are not receiving their SNAP benefits for the month of November. That means Riverside students and staff will need to rely on each other a little more, and there are resources in place to help with additional needs.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamps, is a federal government program that provides monthly benefits to low-income families and individuals to help them purchase food.
Approximately 42 million Americans rely on SNAP benefits. About 1.4 million are North Carolinians, and 580,000 of those are children. As of Saturday, their November benefits won’t come.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture does have a $6 billion contingency fund to continue the SNAP program during a shutdown or other government emergency, there have been no announced plans to use the fund.
Currently, on the USDA website, an announcement banner that was posted on Oct. 30 attributes Democrats for the lapse in resources.
As lawmakers in Washington continue to argue, some state governments have announced they will be substituting the funding not provided by the federal government, but North Carolina is not one of them.
On Monday, Nov. 3, the Trump administration announced it would be distributing partial payments, but it is unclear who will receive these payments and how much they will receive.
According to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1 in 8 American families relies on SNAP benefits. In the 2022-23 school year, 51% of Riverside’s population qualified for free or reduced lunch. While these are two separate data sets, it does suggest that a significant portion of our school needs food assistance.
Riverside does have a few programs in place to help students in need of food assistance at home:
First, Durham Public Schools provides free breakfast and lunch for all students, regardless of income or eligibility. Funding for school meals does not come from the same branch of the federal government as SNAP and will remain in place.
Second, students in need of additional food at home to cover snacks and dinner can talk to a trusted teacher. EC teacher Jenny Bailey runs a program that delivers a bag of non-perishable food for students to take home every week that helps cover snacks and dinner. All teachers can contact Bailey about adding a student to the program.
Additionally, Riverside student organizations such as Student Government, Interact and National Honor Society are working to close the gap on students’ food needs during this time of uncertainty. More details will be shared soon via social media and Canvas announcements.
Outside of the Riverside community, there are a few other food assistance resources. According to ABC 11, Guglhupf Bakery will provide free loaves of bread to anyone who shows their EBT card. Additionally, the North Carolina Association of Educators also allows a student or educator to request food assistance for a family.
It is unclear when, how and if the federal government will begin to fund SNAP again. But, no matter what arguments are happening in the government, people deserve the assistance they need. Sometimes teenagers need to solve problems themselves, and as politicians slowly try to find solutions to this mess, the Riverside community can be quick to respond and take care of each other.
