“For every meal that we provide in the charitable food network, government assistance provides nine, so if that assistance levels are impacted, that could dramatically impact what we are able to do.”
Ken Estelle, president and CEO of Feeding America West Michigan, says while they’re seeing an increase in demand for food assistance due to the federal government shutdown, they’re still able to meet those needs.
“In terms of our food availability and inventory, I think we’re probably pretty good for another month without getting into any real shortages at all, but we’re also looking at some food donors that are stepping up as well.”
Estelle says that while federal food programs such as SNAP and WIC have not run out of funding, the uncertainty of the shutdown has many to turning to food banks, including federal employees who may not be receiving a paycheck.
“And they’re coming up on a pay period now, and we kind of look at how this went in the last, I would say extended shutdown in 2018, and in that case, for our area, we ended up doing some special food distributions at the airport to support some of our TSA workers and other government employees that were not getting paid.”
Food and monetary donations are always welcome on Feeding America West Michigan’s website.
For a weekly dose of news right to your inbox, sign up for the WGVU newsletter.
